The Grundy Center summer sports teams each won non-conference games at Hampton-Dumont-CAL Tuesday. In a game that aired on 104.9 KLMJ, the #9 (2A) baseball team won 6-3 and the softball team won 4-1.
In the baseball game, the Spartans broke the ice in a defensive battle by scoring twice in the third inning. Judd Jirovsky tripled to drive in a run, followed by a reach on error with two outs that allowed another run to score. The Bulldogs responded in the bottom of the inning when a run scored on a Carson Helmke reach on error. Two scoreless innings followed, but Pete Lebo hit a two-run homer to right field in the sixth inning, the first of his career.
“I had two strikes on me, both outside pitches, I was looking to just do damage with any ball,” Lebo says. “I tried to put it in play, but he managed to throw me a changeup right down the middle. I’ve never felt what it’s like to hit one out before. So it’s a great feeling, but I didn’t think it was a no-doubter at first. But then I realized, oh, this is going to go for a little bit. So it’s definitely a great feeling to have one go out.”
Ryder Slifer drove in two runs on a single in the seventh inning, and the Spartans held off single tallies in the sixth and seventh by the Bulldogs. Head Coach Pat Brown Jr. says it was a quality win against a Class 3A opponent.
“Guys like Pete Lebo, they stepped up huge tonight,” Brown says. “He had his first career home run, and then in a pretty tough spot, tough environment in the bottom of the seventh inning, ‘Hey Pete, you want to throw the guy out?’ And he looks at us and shakes and smiles and he tosses the guy out, and then that just, boom, pumps things back up again. So when you have a good backstop like Pete, you don’t have passed balls, you don’t have things, he controls the game. He’s got a lot of baseball knowledge, and he’s just a fun kid to have around. And I was super happy for him to see him hit that home run. I was hoping it was going to clear the red side of it, but it didn’t. But the red monster wasn’t big enough for Pete Lebo today.”
Brayden Davie pitched the first six innings with three strikeouts and two walks.
“These ones sting a little bit more than most, because we kind of beat ourselves a little bit in there,” Hampton-Dumont-CAL coach Matt Lokenvitz says. “They hit the ball well. They’re a great team. They’ve got 18 wins for a reason. They’re not a pushover team, anything like that. But we came out here, we threw strikes, we fielded the ball early, we got guys on base, and then we just kind of had few errors here and there. They scored a few runs, and then they capitalized on those errors, which is what good teams do. They don’t miss when you make a mistake, and that’s kind of what we did. Even in that last inning there, where we started to make a little run, they had to switch pitchers. We started to make a little run and then just a couple mental mistakes there. I’m just really proud of how we stepped up to that fight, and we didn’t allow them just to come in here and roll us over and do those types of things. We were able to really compete with them.”
Dawson Wikert pitched six innings with two strikeouts and two walks. Wikert and William Vosburg each had two hits.
In their next action, both Grundy Center teams will be at Don Bosco Wednesday at 5:00. Bulldog Softball will host Humboldt Wednesday at 7:30, and the Bulldog baseball team will next play Thursday at Boone at 12:00.
