Hampton-Dumont-CAL hosted West Fork in the annual meetings between their summer sports teams Tuesday. In a game that aired on 104.9 KLMJ, the Bulldog baseball team won 7-5. The #8 (2A) Warhawk softball team won 11-0 in five innings.
In the baseball game, the Bulldogs struck first on a sacrifice fly by Dawson Wikert in the first inning for a 1-0 lead, followed by two more runs in the third. The Warhawks answered in the fourth to tie the game at 3-3 on a reach on error by Zander Hansen and a 2-RBI double by Braylon Schreckengost. After Hampton-Dumont-CAL briefly regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth, West Fork scored two more in the fifth on RBI hits by Nolan Schreckengost and Hansen for a 5-4 lead. In the sixth inning, William Vosburg doubled to drive in two runs, and Jaymes Stevens hit a sac fly to score the final run.
Wikert pitched nearly the complete game, and recorded the would-be winning strikeout. But after a dropped third strike and another defensive miscue, he was replaced for one out due to reaching 110 pitches.
“Last night for our last two games, we had to keep battling back, we were back and forth with them for both of the games, so kind of came in with that attitude tonight,” Wikert says. “They we hit the ball good, we pitched decent and came in tonight just trying to throw strikes trying to hit my spots and throw my good changeup. It kind of worked some innings, got away from me, and then I just had to calm down and tell myself just to keep placing pitches, and ended up doing decent.”
Wikert finished with 10 strikeouts and only one walk issued. Vosburg led offensively with two hits and three RBIs.
“We’re starting to see a lot of perseverance coming from the team,” Head Coach Matt Lokenvitz says. “We didn’t see this in the beginning of the year. Now, granted, we were playing some really tough competition beginning of the year when you’re talking about Fort Dodge and North Polk and some of those guys. As soon as we got down one or two runs, we kind of folded over. And we’re like, OK, I guess they’re just going to beat us now. And now all of a sudden, we’ve got that confidence coming in there that we’ve seen all the pitching that we’re going to see. We saw Slagle the other night throw 95. We’re not going to see anybody else that throws harder than that, comes out with a wipeout slider. So the confidence in the box and being able to trust the defense behind them and with our pitching staff. Just showing that perseverance at the end of games. And it doesn’t matter if they go up one or two, if we go up one or two, we kind of have that same demeanor all the way through.”
Lane Kollman pitched 4.1 innings for West Fork with two strikeouts and five walks. Nolan Schreckengost had two hits and an RBI to lead at the plate.
In the softball game, West Fork left no doubt by scoring numerous runs to put the game away and end it early. Hampton-Dumont-CAL will host Iowa Falls-Alden Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. on 104.9 KLMJ, with pregame coverage at 7:15.
