The North Butler Bearcats advanced to the Class 1A District 5 championship after defeating Riceville 3-0 on Tuesday night. The game aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
The game started as a pitchers’ duel, with Brody Wangsness taking the mound for the Bearcats and Asher Ebert starting for Riceville. Both teams remained hitless until the top of the third, when Riceville’s Jake Knode hit a two-out triple. Wangsness struck out the next batter for his seventh strikeout of the outing to keep the game scoreless.
Wrigley Endelman singled in the fourth for North Butler’s first hit of the contest. He later scored, along with Hayden Sage, to give the Bearcats a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth, Wangsness reached on an error and moved to third on a stolen base and a passed ball before Sage drove him in to make it 3-0 and cap the scoring.
Wangsness earned the win on the mound, finishing with 16 strikeouts while facing 24 batters. Wangsness says he had to rely on his secondary pitches against the Wildcats.
“It’s a lot of confidence,” says Wangness. “It’s the biggest thing being out there. Fastball wasn’t very on tonight, so I had to go with the off speed, and off speed worked well.”
North Butler Head Coach Chase Stohr says being prepared defensively contributed to the win.
“They like to put you in some awkward situations,” says Stohr. “They got a few guys like to bunt, and that kind of goes back to preparing the kids at practice and letting them know the types of situations Riceville is going to put you in because they’re going to manufacture some runs, or try to, and we executed defensively, and our pitching kind of helped set the table for that because you start out with a first-pitch strike, it kind of puts that hitter behind the eight ball.”
With the win, North Butler advances to take on St. Ansgar on July 11 in the Class 1A District 5 championship.
