The Dike-New Hartford summer sports teams earned three wins at home over Aplington-Parkersburg Thursday. The Wolverine baseball team won 8-1, as aired on 99 The Wave. The softball team swept a doubleheader, winning Game 1 16-6 in six innings and Game 2 10-6.
In the baseball game, the Wolverines had an ideal start. The first five batters recorded a hit, and it was 7-0 after the first. Lewis Textor drove in the first two runs on a double, which was followed in the next at-bat with a Micah Walston double that scored one run. The last two runs of the inning were scored on an error and a dropped third strike. The Falcons scored on a passed ball in the fourth inning, and DNH capped the scoring on a Carson Costello RBI single in the sixth. DNH Head Coach Jordan Martin on the strong start.
“The last three or four games, our coaching staff has been preaching getting a hot start. We know that our pitching rotation is gonna shut them down right away at the beginning of the game. So if we can get that hot start, it’s gonna be tough to beat us. But yeah, I mean, putting up seven runs in first inning, can’t complain.”
AP coach Brett Kleespies says his team had a hard time bouncing back after falling behind.
“We just dug ourselves a hole,” Kleespies says. “We had the pitches, there was a little flare to left, a flare to right, and we got one to the fence there. We just dug ourselves an unfortunate hole, 7-0, and then just kind of couldn’t battle back. So yeah, hard to compete when you kind of dig yourself a big hole.”
Textor pitched the complete game with eight strikeouts, three hits and no walks. Ryan Gudgeon, Colin Meester, Costello and Walston each had two hits. AP’s Tate Neymeyer pitched the first five innings with 10 hits, three walks and one strikeout. AP (2-3, 2-2 NICL-C) will return to action Monday at Hudson. DNH (5-1, 3-1 NICL-C) will host Grundy Center Monday.
In the first softball game, a three-run homer by Eva Walker was part of a five-run fourth inning to put the Falcons up 6-3. The Wolverines retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth with RBIs by Payton Nolan, Madde Buskhol and Faith Gray. DNH continued its hot streak offensively with three runs in the fifth and five in the sixth, with an RBI single by Gray to put the run-margin rule into effect.
In Game 2, DNH battled back from a 5-4 deficit with four runs in the fourth to pull away.
AP (2-4, 2-2 NICL-C) will play a doubleheader at Hudson Monday. DNH (3-2, 3-1 NICL-C) will be at a tournament at Hudson Saturday.
