It certainly wasn’t the way Reeths-Puffer baseball coach Butch Attig wanted to end his career – if indeed he chooses to retire.
The R-P baseball team faced off with archrival Mona Shores on Saturday in the semifinals of a Division 1 district tournament at Grand Haven High School.
All of the R-P-Mona Shores games have been tight this year, and this one was no exception. The game was scoreless until the top of the seventh inning, when a two-run single gave Mona Shores all the runs it needed in a 2-0 victory that ended the Rockets’ season.
The Rockets finished with a 22-7 record in a season that included a GMAA County Tournament championship.
“It was a clean game,” said Attig. “We couldn’t ask for more from the boys. We played defense and we pitched well. We just couldn’t get those runs across.”
R-P's Jaxson Whitaker
The Rockets failed to capitalize on another great pitching performance by senior Jaxson Whitaker, who tossed all seven innings, allowed only two hits and struck out 10. He dueled it out with Mona Shores’ pitcher Trevor Cunningham, who also pitched a great game and got the win.
R-P nearly made it to the bottom of the seventh with a 0-0 score. Mona Shores had runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the inning, and Hayden Smith had two strikes on him, but he got the hit of the day with a two-run single to put the Sailors on top.
R-P’s Caiden Theisen led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, but the Rockets could not muster any offense beyond that.
Reeths-Puffer had its opportunities in the game. A runner was thrown out at the plate. Another runner was picked off first base, one pitch before senior slugger Trent Reichert hit a double that was very close to being a home run. Another Rocket runner was thrown out at third base trying to advance.
Theisen ended up with two hits in the game.
R-P's Caiden Theisen
“We had opportunities but did not capitalize on them,” Attig said. “It was a very intense and very good baseball game. I was just said that it couldn’t have been in the finals.
“I thought we had a real good shot (at winning the district title) if we could get past Shores, but it wasn’t mean to be.”
The Rockets will look toward next season without knowing for sure, at least for a little while, who their head coach will be.
Attig, 52, has indicated for months that he planned to retire at the end of this season, and reiterated on Sunday that he’s still leaning that way.
The Rockets have won a lot of games under Attig, including 19 in his first season in 2019. After the wiped out COVID year in 2020, they won 26 games and a district title in 2021, 24 games and another district championship in 2022 and 18 games last season.
R-P Coach Butch Attig
“To do it right you have to do it year-round,” Attig said. “We do fall ball, Wednesdays and Sundays in the winter, then you have the season from March to June. My wife sometimes wants to disown me because I am grumpy when I come home and I barely see her.
“I love the game and I love the kids. I love everything about it. I just have to decide what’s best for me and the program. I put in six years (including the COVID year). When I took the job I was maybe planning on four.”
Attig said he’s been encouraged by some parents to return next season, and said he has the continued support of school administrators if he wants to continue.
“It makes me feel good when parents and the athletic director and superintendent want me to come back,” Attig said. “I did tell Mr. Sandee (R-P Athletic Director Cliff Sandee) that I was my intent to retire after this season. I will make a final decision once I sit down with my wife.”