Bulldogs to meet Cowboys for conference battle on the diamond
The Hampton-Dumont-CAL Baseball team will travel to Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Wednesday evening for an early season North Central Conference game.
H-D-CAL is winless through six contests and will be seeking their first victory in 2023 while riding a three game series streak over CGD. The Bulldogs most recently were unwinded by the Humboldt Wildcats on Friday by a 6-0 final, on a night where the offense registered just one hit. Hampton-Dumont-CAL Baseball Head Coach Matt Lokenvitz says that despite the slow struggles, the team is steadily getting better.
“The season hasn’t obviously started the way we would’ve liked it to, but we kind of understand that it’s going to be a slow start with all the new players and adjusting to some of the track kids, and golf kids, and tennis kids, soccer kids getting back on the team here. So we’re improving, and it’s going to be better as the season goes forward.”
Senior Will Sackville has been out to a strong start for H-D-CAL, as five hits and a .278 batting average are team leads. Senior Tommy Birdsell has been the strikeout leader for the Bulldogs on the mound, with 12 through 9.1 innings. When looking towards the matchup with the Cowboys, Lokenvitz says it’s a historic rivalry, and both teams are in similar positions.
“Over the years it’s been a pretty good matchup between us and Clarion. We’re very similar size wise. When we absorbed CAL, you know we grew a little bit bigger than what they were, but for a long time we were both in the 2A Class… Coach Nail over there is a coach, and I know he’ll have his kids ready to play and… they’re kind of struggling to start the year as well… I expect a tough contest.”
With Clarion-Goldfield-Dows 0-8, one of these NCC foes will certainly secure their first overall and conference victory. The Cowboys were taken out by Iowa Falls-Alden 14-8 on Friday, after a monster fourth inning that saw five CGD runs score across the plate. Senior Nevan Foss has been a standout with 10 hits, three RBI’s, seven walks, and a .500 batting average. Foss has also been safe on 90% of stolen base attempts this year.
Hampton-Dumont-CAL and Clarion-Goldfield-Dows are set to square off on the diamond at 7:30 p.m. 104.9 KLMJ will broadcast the event, with pregame coverage starting at 7:20 p.m.
