The Hampton-Dumont-CAL baseball team will look to calm the storm as they take on Center Point-Urbana in a Class 3A district quarterfinal at Center Point on Friday night.
HD-CAL (9-20) enters off a 10-0 regular season finale win in six innings over Nevada on Monday. Cael Burmester, Taylor Mahler and Dawson Wikert drove in two runs a piece in the win over the Cubs. Wikert leads Bulldogs pitching with 59 strikeouts in 11 games. Seniors Brody Walton with a .419 avg. and Cael Burmester with a .468 avg. are locked in at the plate.
Bulldogs Head Coach Matt Lokenvitz says Burmester and Walton in leadership roles are hitting well and facing tough regular season opponents has prepared them for postseason.
“We like to see that growth and I think were seeing that,” says Lokenvitz. “Our seniors are putting their best foot forward right now, Walton and Burmester are both hitting really well, taking the lead for us. It’s good for us, it’s good for our young team to go everyday out to play and face a good pitcher and good hitting teams. You have all of these going for you and that is what we’re going to need going into tournament time, facing good teams all the time.”
CPU (26-8) rolls into the postseason as winners of four in a row. Senior Thomas Tyler is the Stormin Pointers power bat with .436 avg. and 39 RBI’s. Senior Blayze Havel is an ace in the pitching rotation with a 2.28 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 10 appearances.
The game will air on 104.9 KLMJ with pregame coverage at 6:40 p.m. followed by the first pitch at 7:00 p.m. at Center Point.
