The Aplington-Parkersburg baseball team used a steady offensive output and clamped down defensively for an 8-5 home win over Belle Plaine Tuesday.
The Falcons scored at least once in five of their six innings at the plate. After Belle Plaine scored two in the top of the first, the Falcons matched that in the bottom of the first and added another in the second for a 3-2 lead. The Plainsmen took a brief 4-3 lead in the top of the third, but the Falcons put together a response with one in the third and two more in the fourth. From that point, AP held Belle Plaine scoreless while adding two insurance runs in the sixth. Cooper Hoff had two hits and drove in two runs. Preston Janssen had two hits, including a triple and an RBI. Hoff pitched in relief and was credited with the win, and Janssen got the save. Tate Neymeyer scored three runs. AP (9-4, 5-3 NICL-C) will be at Waterloo Columbus Thursday.
The Falcon softball team will return to action Wednesday by hosting Denver for an NICL-Central clash. AP (4-8, 2-5 NICL-C) will look to bounce back from Monday’s 15-3, three-inning home loss to Dike-New Hartford, where they made several defensive adjustments due to the absence of two players. Head Coach Emily Williamson anticipates they’ll return to full strength for Wednesday’s game. Williamson says the offense, at times, has come alive this year.
“That’s one thing I’ve been just really proud of them about,” Williamson says. “They have started to take on the persona of a hitting team. We get up there and we hit and I’m really proud of them for that. They did the same thing Friday night. We went in bottom of the seventh behind and they just got up there and hit the snot out of the ball. And then we ended up winning the game. We’ve kind of been battling the one inning slump for a lot of the first part of the season, playing a pretty solid game minus one inning. And then last week, Thursday, Friday, I’m not saying that we didn’t make mistakes here and there, but we were able to put together a more complete game without that one inning slump, and it’s really paid off for them.”
The team has leaped to a .312 efficiency at the plate, led by Avery Freund and Eva Walker.
Denver (5-8, 2-4 NICL-C) is coming off a 5-4 win over Union Tuesday, where they scored three runs in the top of the seventh to win in comeback fashion. Jenna Collins bats .400 to lead the Cyclones and has also pitched the majority of the innings. The game will start at 7:00 p.m.
