WHITEHALL – The speculation around the field on Saturday was that Fruitport would start a senior pitcher in the championship game of the Division 2 district tournament.

That made sense, because the state tournament is a one-loss-and-you’re-done affair, and an experienced pitcher might be better equipped to deal with the pressure.

Instead the Trojans went with a 14-year-old freshman hurler, Ryan Bosch, with the season on the line.

Bosch more than lived up to the assignment, pitching 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts while allowing only two hits and two walks, helping the Trojans pound Spring Lake 12-3 at Whitehall High School and claim a Division 2 district championship, their first district since 2014.

Bosch started out a little shaky, giving up an RBI single in first inning and hitting a couple batters with pitches, but then settled down and threw the type of game that a confident, experienced senior might throw.

“No,” Bosch said, when asked if he was nervous about pitching in such a big game. “This season has been really successful for me, I knew I could trust my defense behind me, so I knew I could just throw strikes.”

Fruitport Coach Nick Reed said the decision to put Bosch on the mound, rather than senior Gavin Reames, was “just a gut.”

“He pitched Tuesday and he was pumping the strike zone,” said Reed, who won his second district title as Fruitport’s coach. “He pitched six and two-third innings and had a no-hitter. He really found a groove, and we figured if he struggled, Reames is a consistent strike-thrower and he could have come in, but Ryan really battled and got it done.”

The simple fact is that the high school baseball state tournament is made for teams with deep pitching, and Fruitport is definitely one of them.

The Trojans go four deep in quality starting pitchers, which means they can put a great arm on the mound just about every game of the tournament, and that means they will have a fighting chance every game.

On Saturday Fruitport sent senior Cody Matuz to the mound in the semifinals against Oakridge, and he scattered three hits while striking out nine in a 3-0 victory.

Then Bosch – who is 6-foot-5 in his first year of high school – took his turn and pitched like a seasoned veteran.

Both left-handed pitchers kept the Trojans in their respective games until the Fruitport offense woke up to put the games away.

Fruitport only led Oakridge 1-0 in the sixth inning in the semifinals, before scoring two late runs to secure the win.

The Trojans trailed Spring Lake 2-1 after three innings of the finals, but then the bats really started booming and the game became a rout by the end.

“Cody pitched a great game against Oakridge (in the semifinals),” Reed said. “He threw a lot of strikes and had a good curveball and good changeup. We have arms. It took a while to get the bats going today, but once we did we were fine.”

Fruitport looked really impressive for a team that finished the regular season with an 18-15 record and took third place in the O-K Blue conference.

But the O-K Blue is a very tough conference, and the vicious competition prepared the Trojans well for postseason play.

“We’re really starting to turn it on,” Reed said. “We went to Trenton to play in a tournament last weekend, we beat Woodhaven, the sixth-ranked Division 1 team in the state, and the kids saw that we could play with anybody.”

Reed noted that before the last district title in 2014 – his second year as coach – the previous one came in 1998, when he played on the team.

“There was a long gap there,” the coach said. “This is really exciting.”

Fruitport jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Bosch delivered an RBI single. The Lakers answered in the bottom of the inning when Nick Penrice single then eventually scored when Zane Stahl was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Spring Lake took a 2-1 lead in the third inning when a run scored on a passed ball.

The Trojans took control in the fourth inning by scoring four runs, all with two outs, to take a 5-2 lead.

Aiden Vela delivered a two-run single, Gavin Reames followed with a one-run single, and another run scored on a Spring Lake throwing error.

Spring Lake added a run in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI double by Kreegan Deverney.

Fruitport took a 6-3 lead in the fifth on an RBI double from Hayden Harper. Another Trojan run scored in the sixth on a passed ball, then Fruitport blew the game open in the seventh with an RBI double by Harper, a three-run homer by Reames and an RBI double by Bosch.

Bosch got the first two outs in the bottom of the seventh, then Reames came in to get the third out.