West Fork holds on against Bulldogs

SHEFFIELD – West Fork needed its big insurance run in the sixth inning to stave off a late Bulldog rally in this Franklin County baseball showdown as the Warhawks held on for the 4-3 nonconference victory.

Coach Tom Shreckengost’s team had just five hits, but three of them were in the first inning, including a two-run home run by Kayden Ames. One of the few others, a solo blast to dead center by Levi Janssen, provided the difference.

“We hit well tonight,” Shreckengost said. “We had a good game. Noah (Maske) is throwing really well, but I think I took him out in the fifth, he was a little tired and then Kayden (Ames) came in and threw well. He got pinched a little bit, the zone got a little tight on him and gave up some walks and a couple of hits and then brought Kellen (Cameron) in there. We needed Kellen in the end.”

Actually, the Bulldogs out-hit West Fork 9-5, but the difference was three of the five Warhawk hits were in the opening inning and were accentuated by the long ball by Ames and then later by Janssen.

The start, which H-D coach Matt Lokenvitz said has become routine for his team, set the tone.

“That’s normal for us right now,” Lokenvitz said. “We’ve got five games (in) right now and every team has scored on us in the first inning. We’re sluggish to start, we have to fix that, I don’t know what to attribute that to. We walk too many in the first inning, for sure, but we usually have a walk and an error in the first inning every game we play. We’ve got to get better at that.

“The rest of the game we played really well. Other than this game, we’ve hit the ball really well. This one, we kind of struggled. We hit the ball, but it was right at them. Ones that we hit really hard was right at them, so their pitchers did a good job, when they catch you on an off-day, you tip your hat and you move on. That’s what you get.”

The Bulldogs missed out on a chance to score in the fourth on a close play at the plate when trying to score Carson Miller all the way from second on a short fly from Benji Sauke that dropped in right.

“We weren’t scoring, struggling to get on base,” Lokenvitz said. “Lazy little fly ball to right field. I felt we had a jump on it; I thought it took a perfect throw to get him, if he would have had to go through to the cut, he wasn’t going to get him. It looked like he had a good arm, but like I said, it took a perfect throw to get him. I thought it was a little high, and we were under it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

“It’s a judgment call and you’re not going to get them all. When you’re struggling to get on base and score runs, you have to try something, especially in the middle innings because if he’s safe, that jump start becomes a string of hits a bit sooner. It’s a gamble you take, sometimes you make it, sometime you don’t.”

It took a two-out rally for the Bulldogs to get on the board with consecutive walks to Miller and Payton McNealy. Sauke stepped up with an RBI single and then a two-run single by Jordan Severs forced Shreckengost and the Warhawks to go to Kellen Cameron, who was slated to start the previous night’s rainout.

“I figured they’d score runs,” Shreckengost said. “I think they led the state in runs scored. They had the most runs, most doubles, I know, in the state of Iowa after four games. They hit really well. We shut them down. We scored runs today, a couple home runs, bombs and we did great.”

Lokenvitz’s team, which had two doubles and indeed lead 3A in that category, also loaded the bases in the sixth, but the Warhawks were able to escape that jam, as well.

“You start putting the ball in play, squaring it up, beginning of the game, most of our swings were dipping back our shoulder straight up in the air,” Lokenvitz said. “Weren’t very inspired swings and we didn’t have a very good approach at the plate. That last inning, we had better approaches. Better walks, better hits, some good things. We had the tying run on second base, but it’s all a learning experience.”

Playing a slight part was after Monday’s rainout, the Bulldogs did not practice and West Fork spent time in its Wellness Center.

“I told the kids, ‘I think we’re one of the best 1-3 teams around going into tonight’s game,’” Shreckengost said. “The Ackley game was a stinger for us and the Northwood game right after that. The kids re-grouped. We practiced inside the Wellness Center, hit for about two hours and they were ready to go.”

Lokenvitz said, “If we are playing our best baseball by July, we’ll be happy. Sometimes, you are going to run into bumps in the road. We did that in the first game, when we had to go against one of the best pitchers in the state in Tyler Olson. We scratch away a few hits, few base runners, don’t do much, we play really well for three games then get rained out yesterday, a little bit nervous that we’d be a bit sluggish after four days off, but we came out sluggish and need to get better.”

Shreckengost said that he would have made the same moves against the Bulldogs even if the rain-out hadn’t occurred.

“We were going to go (with) Kellen (pitching) last night, anyway,” Shreckengost said. “Noah was going to pitch against these guys, anyway. It wouldn’t have mattered. Dylan will go (against Central Springs) and Kellen goes against St. Ansgar. Luckily, we have good pitching, a lot who can throw. Hopefully, that helps us because we’ve got district seeding coming up quick. Those two losses will bite us in the long run. We need to string some out and get back on top of things.”

West Fork 4, Bulldogs 3

H-D               000   000   3     -    3     9     2

W.Fork         300   001   x     -    4     5     5

Winning battery– Noah Maske, Kayden Ames (5), Kellen Cameron (7) and Cameron, Nate Hubka (7). Losing battery – Marcos Baez and Cal Heeren. Two or more hits– H-D (Benji Sauke 3, Mario De La Cruz); WF (Ames). 2B– H-D (De La Cruz, Sauke). HR– WF (Ames, Levi Janssen). SAC– None. SB– WF (Dylan Schlader). HBP– H-D (Payton McNealy); WF (Janssen, Cameron). RBI– H-D (Jordan Severs 2, Sauke); WF (Ames 2, Janssen, Maske).