Austin Hall broke Unity Christian’s single-season hits record last Thursday night, even as the Knights’ third consecutive state tournament appearance ended with a 9–4 loss to Durant in the Class 2A semifinals in Carroll.
Unity finished the season 25–10 and among the final four teams in Class 2A for the third consecutive year.
“You know, it’s just one of those things when you get to state, you never know what happens,” Unity head coach Skyler Wheeler said. “And you get there three times. We’ve seen three different things. It was a tough one. I asked a lot of guys to do things that were difficult.”
Hall and Brody Emmelkamp had not pitched since the regular season. Hall started and worked 4⅔ innings, while Emmelkamp allowed one hit over two scoreless innings to finish the game.
Durant took a 3–0 lead before Unity answered with two runs in the fourth inning. Hall opened the inning with a double, Dylan Bosma walked and Dylan Zomer singled. Austin Wieringa’s sacrifice fly scored Hall, while Bosma also scored on a throwing error.
Durant broke the game open with five runs in the fifth and added another in the sixth. Unity continued fighting, scoring twice in the seventh on an RBI single from Brody Emmelkamp and a sacrifice fly from Adler Van Essen.
The Knights finished with four hits. Hall, Zomer, Wieringa and Emmelkamp recorded one apiece. Durant pitcher Owen Collier went all seven innings, allowing four runs—three earned—while striking out five.
Hall’s fourth-inning double was his 50th hit of the season, surpassing the previous Unity single-season record held by Beau Bosma. Hall finished with a .442 batting average, 12 doubles, 36 RBIs and 26 runs.
“He had a phenomenal year, and he earned it,” Wheeler said. “He’s worked very hard…The best part about it is so many of those hits were just phenomenal hits. They weren’t little dinks. They weren’t little rollovers. He hammered baseballs this year, and I think it made a huge difference for us.”
The senior class included Hall, Wieringa, (Dylan) Bosma, Emmelkamp, Brayden Harskamp and Jonah De Jong. Wheeler recalled that several members of the group played as eighth-graders on a team that finished 9–16. After falling in the district final the following season, the class helped Unity reach state three consecutive times.
“That’s a lot of resiliency, that senior class,” Wheeler said. “…Even there at the end, they’re down 9–2 and they were fighting. And that doesn’t just happen. That’s earned. And that just shows you how much those kids care.”
