The Dike-New Hartford baseball and softball teams will travel to Osage for non-conference action Wednesday. It’ll be the baseball team’s regular season finale and the softball team’s penultimate regular season game.
The baseball team (13-11) will go for a bounce-back win, having lost five of its last six. They were scheduled to face #3 (1A) Newman Catholic Friday, but it was cancelled. In their last game, they surrendered three runs late in a 3-1 loss to #10 (1A) Don Bosco on Monday. Head Coach Jordan Martin says it’s critical to face tough opponents late in the season.
“These are the games that we want to compete in,” Martin says. “Obviously we want to come out and win, but towards the end of the season is where we want to see our toughest talent because going into the playoffs, we want to be playing our best ball.”
Osage (15-7) has lost two straight, which was preceded by a five-game win streak. Max Gast leads Iowa with a .587 average, and the team has a stingy ERA of 1.60. It’ll be the first meeting between the programs since the 2022 substate final, where the Wolverines erased a seven-run first inning deficit to advance to the state tournament. The game will start at 7:30 p.m.
The Wolverine softball team (18-9) will look to bounce back from Monday’s 11-5 home loss to Don Bosco, where they gave up eight runs in the seventh inning to snap a six-game win streak. It also snapped a streak of four games that ended early due to the runs-ahead rule.
Osage (21-7) has won 10 straight, including a 15-1, six-inning win over Northwood-Kensett on Wednesday, June 26. Olivia Chapman and Emma Evens each bat .500 or better to lead the team. The game will start at 6:00 p.m.
