Bulldog Baseball Continues to Struggle With One Big Inning

The Hampton-Dumont-CAL baseball team is still searching for that first win of the season.  It has have been close a couple of times in the early season, but has struggled to get the outs they need to prevent a big inning.  The Bulldogs have led in almost evey game this season, yet have yet to find themselves in the win column.  The Bulldogs’ pitching has been the strong point early in the year, but the bats and defense have not yet come around.  Coach Matt Lokenvitz said he believes in his team, but they have to learn how to win.  He also believes that the first win will snowball into more wins and that this team is very capable of winning a lot of baseball games.

The Bulldogs began their week with a trip up to Roosevelt Field in Mason City to take on the Riverhawks.  The Bulldogs jumped to an early 2-0 in the top of the first inning.  Brayden Johnson took the mound for the Bulldogs and threw four strong innings. The Bulldogs extended their lead to 4-0 in the fourth innings.  The Riverhawks would not go away and rallied in the bottom of the fourth behind some Bulldog errors to tie the game at four.  The Riverhawks would add two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-4 lead.  The Bulldogs pushed a run across in the top of the sixth to trim their deficit to one,, but the Riverhawks would add three more and ultimately earn the 9-5 victory over the Bulldogs.  Kyle Helmke led the Bulldogs at the plate going 2-for-4.  Tucker Heeren came in to pitch relief and would pitch two strong innings with five strikeouts and give up no earned runs.

Tuesday the Bulldogs return home to take on the South Hamilton Hawks.  Sophomore Jaxon Moats was on the mound for the Bulldogs and threw a consistent five innings for the Bulldogs, giving up three earned runs while striking out four.  Will Sackville and Cael Burmester led the way for Bulldogs up to bat, going 2-for-3 with a single and double, while Burmester would have three RBIs for the Bulldogs.  The game would be back and forth as both teams hit the ball well.  The top of the fifth saw the Bulldogs leading 6-3, but the Hawks rallied with two outs to score eight runs and take an 11-6 lead.  Both teams added a couple more runs, but the damage was done and the Hawks would win 14-8.

On Friday, the Bulldogs opened up their conference schedule against the Humboldt Wildcats.  Tommy Birdsell took the mound for the Bulldogs and faceed off against sophomore Isaiah Busick of the Wildcats.  Both pitchers threw good games, but the Wildcat would be almost flawless.  The Bulldogs would only be able to muster one hit while striking out nine times.  Tucker Heeren would have the only hit and the Bulldogs would fall 6-0 to the Wildcats, dropping their NCC opener.

The Bulldogs have a long weekend to bounce back and will travel to Clarion Wednesday to take on Clarion-Goldfield-Dows on its new turf field.  Thursday HD-Cal hosts Jesup and Friday its returns to conference play for a matchup with the Algona Bulldogs.  Saturday The Bulldogs will travel to Lake Mills for a tournament.