OT - Calvin College player has walk off steal of home

Submitted by Victors5 on

Calvin College basebal team played Albion College last weekend, and won their game on a walk off steal of home. This has been getting some national pub on MLB Fancave, Barstool Sports, Bleacher report, and is rumored to be on Olbermann tonight on ESPN2. As an alum of Calvin College this is some pretty cool publicity for the school, and the whole west side of the state in general.

I linked the video to this post (dont know how to embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQN5rXG7o60

Le_Blue

April 15th, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^

More Calvin alums on the board! Pretty cool play. I played with quite a few guys on the team and they're all really pumped about the publicity this is getting. Hopefully it will kick start the second half of their season and they can end Adrian's 5 year run as MIAA champs.



Go Knights!

LordGrantham

April 15th, 2014 at 10:06 PM ^

I actually bought a pair of those about a year ago.  They don't make you run faster or jump higher, but they do make you feel a bit younger.

switch26

April 15th, 2014 at 9:58 PM ^

cool play being from the area, but not sure how that catcher didn't see that kid walking down the line..  surprised he didn't look him back to the bag for such a big lead..

 

Not sure how strong his arm is, but he could of easily snap threw back to 3rd and got the kid out, but it would of been a big risk..  Game of chances

Muttley

April 16th, 2014 at 12:23 AM ^

almost surely that's what the runner noticed during previous pitches.  The runner starts heading home as the catcher is on his knees starting his non-chalant throw back to the pitcher.  (Al Kaline would have said he non-chalants it. My late father hated that butchering of the language.)

Anybody know how many outs there were?  That's a smart play with two outs.  Nobody out and nobody on 2nd & 3rd, not so much.

Raoul

April 16th, 2014 at 9:54 AM ^

Trailing 2-0, Calvin loaded the bases on two walks and a single. Then, with two outs, two more walks tied the game before the steal of home to win it. This is from the Calvin recap:

In game two, four Knight errors led to two Albion runs, allowing the Britons to take a 2-0 lead. The score remained that way until the bottom of the seventh.

In the seventh, Calvin loaded the bases with two out. Walks to sophomore Travis Kraai (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian HS) and Matt Schepel allowed the Knights to tie the ball game up at two runs apiece.

With junior Peter Cupery (Holland/Holland Christian HS) at the plate, the Britons were caught off guard when Van Putten stole home on a throw back from the Albion catcher to the pitcher. Van Putten was safe, and the Knights went home victorious, 3-2.

"Grant has done that before (stolen home) and he had the green light to go," said Calvin head coach John Sparks. "He timed it perfectly and made a huge play. With his speed, he can create a lot of havoc on the basepaths."

The steal of home was Van Putten's 22nd stolen base of the year on 24 attempts. He is currently ranked third nationally in stolen bases per-game. He is one shy of matching his own Calvin single-season record of 23 steals set a year ago. In addition, he is the Calvin career leader in stolen bases with 66.

benbaas15

April 15th, 2014 at 10:09 PM ^

As a current Calvin student who knows many players on the baseball team this is awesome to see the attention my school is getting. The kid has set the record as a sophomore for career steals, and with that steal set the record for steals in a season. He is blazing fast. Averages a steal per game and is like 3rd in the country in steals for D3.

Any chance he plays slot?