The Dike-New Hartford baseball team took advantage of opportunities in the late innings to secure an 11-4 home win over Clear Lake Tuesday in non-conference action.
Clear Lake scored once each in the second and fifth innings to take a 2-0 lead. But the Wolverines picked up momentum in the bottom of the fifth. Lewis Textor walked with the bases loaded to score the first run, which was followed by Cameron Decker stealing home to tie the game. Micah Walston was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, giving the Wolverines a 3-2 lead. In the next at-bat, Gavin Gerbracht hit a bouncer to third that was bobbled, and each runner advanced on the error to take a 4-2 lead. Conner Dancer walked with the bases loaded to score the fifth run, and Walston scored on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 6-2.
In the sixth, Gerbracht walked with the bases loaded to begin the scoring. Next, Cole McCumber got on base with a bases-loaded hit by pitch. Dancer drove in two runs on a single, and Colin Meester hit a sacrifice fly to complete the scoring. DNH (9-3, 5-2 NICL-C) will host Wapsie Valley Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
The Wolverine softball team (9-5, 5-1 NICL-C) will also host Wapsie Valley Wednesday. DNH is coming off Monday’s 15-3, three-inning win at Aplington-Parkersburg, where they scored 14 runs in the first inning to take a commanding lead. Senior Payton Nolan says the team is finding its offensive stride.
“We have a really young team this year,” Nolan says. “There’s only three seniors, the rest are juniors through eighth graders. So that’s actually pretty special to me, knowing that we have a bunch of eighth graders that wanted to come up. So having all of the bats getting ready to go really helped us a lot [Monday]. Our biggest thing is we like to swing to swing sometimes, but we really took down on the walks and just had our great at bats that we normally had at the beginning of the season. So I’m glad that they’re starting to come back at this point.”
Wapsie Valley (12-6, 4-3 NICL-E) has won two straight, including an 8-5 upset of #6 (3A) Sumner-Fredericksburg in the second game of a doubleheader Monday. Peyton Curley bats .491 to lead a powerful hitting lineup. The game will start at 7:00 p.m.
