The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows baseball team was tested by a highly competitive North Central Conference, and earned a majority of their wins in non-conference play. The Cowboys battled for an 8-6 record in non-conference this season. Head Coach Ryan Nail.
“We went through some streaks of playing some really good ball. Matchups with different schools around the area that are more our size and more our competitive level, it was nice for us to come out on top in most of those,” says Nail. “We play in a pretty big conference with some pretty big teams. We knew there’s going to be some nights where we’re going to struggle with them. For the most part, we had a great competitive nature to our team and we had some good comebacks throughout the season. We were down and that really set the bar high for this group.”
The North Central conference saw five of its eight programs finish with a .500 or better record in conference action. The Cowboys went 2-12 in the conference, after sweeping a doubleheader against St.Edmond. Algona went 13-1 and Humboldt went 11-3 to finish atop the standings. Nail on how the NCC prepares the team for season on the line games.
“We saw some really good pitching from some bigger 3A schools during conference games. That really set us up to not be surprised by many other teams. We ended up losing our last game against Van Meter, who probably has one of the best pitching staffs for a 2A school. It was nothing surprising when we went down there. We’re just a few steps away from really being able to compete with that high level velocity from some of those pitchers.”
The Cowboys concluded their season at 10-18 overall.
