The Aplington-Parkersburg summer sports teams will travel to South Hardin for NICL crossover action Wednesday. The baseball game will air on 99 The Wave.
The baseball team will look to stay hot with two games left before postseason play, coming off Tuesday’s 5-4 home win over West Marshall. They were able to turn around from a slow start due in part to the increased production of senior Preston Janssen and junior Sully Janssen, who each bat over .400 after sub-.300 seasons last year. Preston Janssen on how they’ve been able to make significant year-to-year strides.
“We both play a little bit of fall ball, that certainly contributes and helps a lot,” Janssen says. “And for me, it was really important to dumb things down a little bit and make things simple, just put the ball in play and not try to do too much.”
Sully Janssen says making contact on as many pitches as possible has been a key reason for success.
“It’s all about the reps,” Janssen says. “Me and Preston put in the work this offseason. Just getting up to the cage and hitting together. It’s nice to see that pay off. And I think the other thing is just the approach. Like, we both want to go up there and hit the ball. We don’t like to watch a lot of pitches. So that’s kind of been the approach this year.”
South Hardin will play their regular season finale, with one final tuneup before Saturday’s playoff opener at home against Iowa Falls-Alden.
Coverage will start at 6:45 p.m., followed by the first pitch at 7:00. The softball teams will start their game at 6:30.
