The Hampton-Dumont-CAL baseball team will begin postseason action by taking on Boone for a 3A Substate 3 first round game Friday. It’ll air on 99 The Wave, and has been moved to North Polk High School at 4:00.
Coming off a 7-20 regular season, the Bulldogs will look to snap a seven-game losing streak and win their first playoff game since 2017. While the results haven’t been favorable, Head Coach Matt Lokenvitz says the strength of schedule has the team prepared to face anyone.
“These kids have some talent, they just have to understand how much work it takes to be really good,” Lokenvitz says. “They’re starting to figure that out. They’re starting to see some of these really good teams. One of the reasons why we scheduled our schedule this way, they got to see North Polk, who’s really, really good. They got to see Algona, who’s really, really good. They’ve got to see Grundy Center, who’s really good. All of these really good teams that they’re able to really compete with, and it’s going to be really good moving forward.”
Boone (20-9) is entering postseason play on a four-game win and coming off a fourth place finish in the Racoon River Conference. They offer a powerful batting lineup with four players hitting over .300. The Toreadors defeated the Bulldogs 10-0 in six innings when they met on Thursday, July 3.
The winner will advance to Monday’s substate semifinal against either Webster City or Waverly-Shell Rock.
