The Hampton-Dumont-CAL baseball team will play its long-awaited first games of the week when it hosts Algona Thursday for a North Central Conference doubleheader. The doubleheader was originally scheduled for Monday, and Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games were cancelled.
Head Coach Matt Lokenvitz says it’ll be a stiff test against a team that’s undefeated in conference play.
“They’ve got really good, players, Slagle going to Iowa to play baseball, and he’s hitting in the mid 90s right now off the mound,” Lokenvitz says. “It’s going to be a really good test for us. They’re obviously a top rated team, one of the best in 3A, but we’ve got to be able to go and compete against these teams. There are only a few teams to make it to state, and if we want to make it to state at some point, we’ve to be able to beat some of these good teams. We’ve already beat Humboldt, is also, I think they’re like 15th in the state right now, having a really good season. So we can compete if everything clicks for us. We’ve just got to make sure that we don’t beat ourselves. Don’t go in there and make a bunch of errors, walk a bunch of people, do those types of things, have confidence in what we can do.”
Algona is 8-0 in conference play to lead the standings, but has lost two straight in non-conference play to Estherville Lincoln Central and Solon. Tate Slagle leads the team and conference with a .544 batting average and a league-leading three home runs and 20 RBIs. It’ll also be their first games of the week. The first game will start at 5:00.
