Bulldog Baseball Returns to Winning Ways

The Hampton-Dumont-CAL baseball team entered the week without a win, but competed with some tough teams in the early part of its schedule.  Playing a tough opening schedule has forced the Bulldogs to compete while at the same time preparing them to go through a tough NCC schedule.  The Bulldogs looked to bounce back in the NCC with a pair of conference games.

They traveled to Clarion on Wednesday to face off with the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Cowboys.  The Bulldogs jumped on the scoreboard first, plating a run in the second inning and another in the fifth.  The Bulldogs would add two more in the sixth inning to take a 4-0 lead.  The Cowboys rallied back though, and made the game interesting, scoring a run in the bottom of sixth, and loading the bases in the bottom of the seventh before Tucker Heeren shut the door on them.  Brayden Johnson earned the win for the Bulldogs, pitching six and one-third innings and striking out 16 Cowboys.  Heeren earned the save, and struck out two.  Kyle Helmke would go 2-for-3 on the evening and drive in two runs.  Brody Walton and Cael Burmester would also each drive in a run for the Bulldogs.  The victory was the first of the season for the Bulldogs, making them 1-6 on the season and 1-1 in the NCC.

Thursday night was a Bulldog home game against the Jesup J-Hawks in Hampton.  The Bulldogs struck first in the second inning on a triple by Will Sackville that scored two.  The J-Hawks answered back with a run of their own in the top of the third, but the Bulldogs would extend their lead behind Sackville’s bat again with an RBI double.  The Bulldogs then added three more runs to take a 5-1 lead, ultimately earning the 5-2 victory.  Jaxon Moats pitched a complete game for the Bulldogs, giving up no earned runs and striking out 8 to solidly earn the win.  Tucker Heeren also add 2 more RBIs for the Bulldogs.

Friday night was another conference clash, this time with the Algona Bulldogs.  This game would end in free baseball for the Bulldog fans with H-D-CAL jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.  Algona answered back in the third inning though, scoring two runs and then adding two more in the top of the seventh to take the lead.  Dawson Wikert almost ended the game for H-D-CAL with a big swing in the bottom of the seventh that fell about six feet short of the fence, but drove in a run to tie the game up at 4.  Algona came out ready to play in the top of the eighth, blasting four runs in and ultimately winning the game 8-4.  Tommy Birdsell pitched 6 ⅓ innings and gave up two earned runs and striking out six.  Tony Valenzuela went 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.  Birdsell, Heeren, and Wikert would each add an RBI.  

Saturday saw the Bulldogs head to Lake Mills to play in a tournament.  They first took on the St. Ansgar Saints in game that would go back and forth all the way to the 10th inning before the Saints walked the game off with a hit.  Dawson Wikert pitched 6 ⅔ innings and gave up two earned runs while striking out five.  The game also saw the return of senior Marco Guerrero, who suffered an ACL injury during football season.  Guerrero would come in to finish the game for the Bulldogs, giving up one earned run and striking out one batter, going 3-for-5 from the plate in his return and scoring a run.  Valenzuela and Burmester each drove in two runs and Austin Hanson added another RBI.  Twenty minutes after the game, the Bulldogs plated up against the Northwood-Kensett Vikings.  The game would be sloppy for the tired Bulldogs, who earned a walk-off hit by pitch to score the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.  Austin Hanson pitched five innings, striking out six, while Brody Walton would come in to relieve.  Walton would go 3-for-3 with three RBIs and five steals and took the HBP to score the walk off run for the Bulldogs.  

The victory helped the Bulldogs finish the week 3-2, improving their overall record to 3-8 and 1-2 in the conference.  Looking into the next week the Bulldogs have some very winnable games and should continue to build on this momentum.  Monday will see the Bulldogs head to Iowa Falls, Tuesday to Osage, Wednesday they return home to take on St. Edmonds, Thursday is a mega-night with North Butler where freshman, JV and varsity will all play, finally Friday the Bulldogs head to Clear Lake.