Local rivals will meet in baseball and softball when Aplington-Parkersburg hosts Dike-New Hartford Monday. The softball teams will play a single varsity game and the baseball teams will play a varsity doubleheader, both of which will start at 5:00 p.m. The softball game will air on 99 The Wave with pregame coverage beginning at 4:50.
The Falcon softball team (4-7, 2-4 NICL-C) is seemingly on the rise, having clinched their highest win total since 2020. They’ve won two straight, having defeated Belmond-Klemme 8-7 and Union 10-4 to end last week. Against Union, the Falcons racked up a season-high 16 base hits. Against Belmond-Klemme, they deleted a five-run deficit and scored four runs in the seventh for the comeback win. Avery Freund leads offensively with a .515 batting average.
The Wolverines (8-5, 4-1 NICL-C) will look to snap a two-game losing streak. At Friday’s tournament at Jesup, they fell to West Delaware 14-5 and Edgewood-Colesburg 4-2. A powerful batting lineup is led by Madde Buskohl’s .517 batting average, including a team-high seven extra base hits. The Wolverines swept a doubleheader in Dike earlier this season, winning 16-6 in six innings and 10-6. They’ve won 11 straight in the series, a streak that began in 2020.
The Falcon baseball team (7-3, 4-1 NICL-C) is heating up, and enters on a five-game win streak. They won each game last week, which was capped off by a 9-2 win over Union and a 6-2 win over Wapsie Valley. The offense has been paced by several key contributors, led by Tate Neymerer’s team-best .424 average.
Dike-New Hartford (7-2, 4-1 NICL-C) finished last week with back-to-back wins, 13-7 over South Hardin and 11-0 in five innings over Denver. Carson Costello continues to excel at the plate while batting .606, and was a single shy of hitting for the cycle against South Hardin. The Wolverines won 8-1 when the teams met in Dike earlier this season.
