The West Fork baseball will look to take down a Class 1A baseball perennial power in #3(1A) Newman Catholic in a 1A district final on Saturday.
West Fork (12-13) took home a pair of high scoring wins over GMG 9-4 and Colo Nesco 15-5 in five innings to advance to this stage. Edison Maske leads on the hill with a 1.27 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 11 appearances. Zander Hansen has stepped up as a cleanup hitter for the Warhawks with 21 RBI’s.
West Fork Head Coach Kayden Ames says they will need to limit error and keep run production high to take down the Knights.
“We’re going to have to throw strikes it’s going to start there,” says Ames. “They’re going to hit the ball when we throw strikes, but if we’re just walking guys, then free base runners aren’t ever a good thing. They’re really not a good thing when you’re playing those guys, because we know they’re going to hit balls hard and put them in play. If we start by throwing strikes, let them put the ball in play, and then we make the plays that we can, I think we’ll be good there. If we can limit the mistakes defensively, we’ll put ourselves in a position to win if we show up offensively.
Newman Catholic (29-5) enters off a 16-0 district semifinal win over BCLUW in three innings to advance. Toby Kesten is the Knights ace on the mound with a 0.71 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 10 appearances. Malachi O’Brien is batting .357 with 31 driven in to help lead the offense.
The game will air on 104.9 KLMJ with pregame coverage at 6:40 p.m. followed by the first pitch at 7:00 pm in Mason City.
