The Dike-New Hartford baseball team surged late and defeated Aplington-Parkersburg 3-2 in Tuesday’s 2A District 12 semifinal in Anamosa, as aired on 99 The Wave.
AP started hot by taking advantage of two first inning errors by the Wolverines, and led 2-0 after the first half inning. In the bottom of the first, Lewis Textor drove in a run to make it 2-1 AP, which remained the score for the next four innings. Strong pitching was a key, with starting pitchers Carson Costello of Dike-New Hartford and Sully Janssen of Aplington-Parkersburg striking out a combined 17 batters. In the sixth, DNH started the inning with the top of the order. After Gavin Gerbracht walked and stole bases, Costello and Textor each singled to drive in runs and take the lead for good.
Textor on the sixth inning rally.
“Just playing seven innings, Carson threw a great game and we had a couple of errors in the field, but we bounced back,” Textor says. “We put it all together and just playing the full game really helped. Carson and I were talking on the way back to the dugout, like we’re gonna win this game in this inning. We went up there aggressive, Carson had a nice hit and I followed up and scored the run, took the lead, and barbecued chicken from there.”
He led offensively with two hits and two RBIs.
Costello says the team bounced back from a rocky start and battled through a defensive slugfest.
“We’re a team that just perseveres,” Costello says. “On the mound, I just had to continue to trust my defense. And they just kept battling for me and kept making plays continuously. And we’re just being resilient and just knowing that we can win this game. And we’ve got to keep grinding. And ultimately, that’s what we did.”
Head Coach Jordan Martin on the game-changing inning.
“We just knew we had to get baserunners on,” Martin says. “Having Gavin get on on that walk was huge. We told them before the inning started that we were going pedal to the metal and run around the bases and steal and do what we needed to do to get over to second base. And just kind of worked in our favor that Gavin was able to get over to third. And we were able to make things work and get that first run in.”
DNH (21-4) has advanced to Saturday’s district final at Anamosa, which defeated Monticello 11-1 in five innings in the second game of the doubleheader.
AP coach Brett Kleespies on battling to the very end.
“The boys played their butt off here,” Kleespies says. “We played six innings really, really well. I’d like to have a few more runs there just to give insurance. We had some guys on base and we didn’t score them in situations. And that’s kind been our thing all year is we’ve left a lot of guys on bases. And in situations, we need to score them. Sully Jansen pitched his butt off tonight. And I couldn’t be more proud of him. He got to the sixth inning and he was about out of pitches. He threw some last night for us. It was one of those things we were at the brink and I think they just had a couple of timely hits at the top of their order that just put a couple of guys on base, and they did what they needed to do. Unfortunately we came out on the wrong side. So yeah, super proud of the boys and up 2-1 the whole game and felt comfortable with Sully on the mound and. It’s baseball.”
Preston Janssen and Sully Janssen each had two hits to lead offensively.
AP’s season has ended at 15-12.
More postseason action will take place for Dike-New Hartford Wednesday as the Wolverine softball team will host Woodward-Granger in a 2A Region 4 quarterfinal. DNH is coming off a 19-10 regular season, though fell 16-4 to Jesup in their regular season finale. Woodward-Granger (16-10) has won two straight entering postseason play. It’ll start at 7:00 p.m. at Gunderson Sports Complex, and the winner will advance to Friday’s regional semifinal against either South Hardin or #4 (2A) Osage.
