The Aplington-Parkersburg summer sports teams played non-conference games in separate locations Tuesday. In a game that aired on 99 The Wave, the baseball team fell 7-5 at #1 (2A) West Marshall. The softball team defeated North Tama 6-4 at home.
In a possible district final preview, the Falcon baseball team competed closely with the Trojans. In the second inning, a Preston Janssen sacrifice bunt drove in Cooper Hoff to tie the game at 1-1. Trailing 5-1 entering the sixth inning, the Falcons came back to tie the game. Sully Janssen had an RBI single, followed by Devin Davis driving in two on an RBI double.
Davis RBI in sixth inning:
Gabe Jacobson later drove in the tying run. The Trojans answered with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and held the Falcons off the board in the seventh. Head Coach Brett Kleespies.
“They’re on top for a reason, man,” Kleespies says. “They hit the ball and they kind of had a senior lineup in there. So it was one of those trap games. There’s a potential that we could meet in the district final again. And so it was one of those things that neither team wanted to kind of show their hand. And it was just kind of one of those back and forth games. But yeah, happy the way the guys competed. Hit the ball well tonight again. And we had a few more strikeouts than I’d like. But again, they’re at the top for a reason. And so they kind of brought some of their big guys, their studs, in at the end just to kind of sure up things there in the end. But that was an overall good game to just kind of bring some confidence to the guys. They know they can compete. We had a tie ball game at 5-5 there and they just had a couple couple timely hits on their part and the cards didn’t fall our way. But hopefully if things go right, potentially we could meet up again”
Hoff and Jacobson each had two hits, and Davis had two RBIs. Nick Neuroth pitched for the first time since 2022, and went the first three innings with three strikeouts, two walks and three hits. Jacobson and Tate Neymeyer pitched the remaining innings. AP (12-7, 7-5 NICL-C) will host South Hardin Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
Brett Kleespies interview:
In the softball game, North Tama scored once in the top of the first inning. In the bottom of the first, Jordan Trueblood and Avery Freund were issued consecutive bases-loaded walks to take a 2-1 lead. In the third, Julia Mostek drove in two runs on a single for a 4-1 lead. North Tama tied the game with three runs in the fourth. In the sixth, the Falcons took the lead when Kendall Riherd hit a sacrifice fly that scored Eva Walker. Ada Switzer scored after North Tama committed a fielding error on a batted ball by Freund to cap the scoring. AP (8-11, 5-7 NICL-C) will host South Hardin Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
