West Fork shuts down North Butler

ALLISON – West Fork coach Tom Shreckengost has a lot to feel good about.

He had his ace going against North Butler in a 14-0, six-inning shutout of the Bearcats while on the road in this Wednesday, July 1 Top of Iowa East Conference game.

Kellen Cameron struck out four and scattered four hits, getting a lot of help from his defense in improving to 5-4 overall, 4-2 in the TIC East.

“When you have Kellen on the mound, they’re pretty tough,” coach Shreckengost said. “Threw strikes. We actually hit the ball today, we fought through. They were patient, a lot more since we worked on that after the Osage loss.

“We had a little talk and patience was a big thing for us tonight. We stole about 12 bases tonight, plus Kellen threw his fifth shutout, no one has scored on him yet, so he’s throwing really well and it was a great team win.”

Meanwhile, North Butler is struggling to find the combination that will work for the Bearcats. For the first time ever, Chet Buss caught for coach Isaac Almelien’s team.

“We are just trying some stuff,” coach Almelien said. “Things haven’t been going well, so you look for solutions and that’s one idea that he had, we had. I think he’s got potential to be a great catcher. He struggled a little bit tonight, but who wouldn’t? First time behind the plate ever. We’re just trying to move things around, come up with a combination that works for us.”

North Butler’s lone run was erased off the board in the fifth when Jase Wiebke, who doubled and went to second on a passed ball, was ruled to have left third base early on a sacrifice fly attempt to right by Eric Brehmer.

West Fork lead-off hitter Carter Meints went 3-for-3 and reached base all five times, being hit by a pitch and walked by Bearcat starter Kolben Miller. He scored three times.

Cameron also helped himself out with a pair of hits.

Playing on the day the district brackets were released, both teams are going in different directions.

“We’re right where we wanted to be,” Shreckengost said of his Warhawks. “When we went to the seeding meeting, via Zoom, of course, we figured we were going to be a five seed. We thought that Newman and Northwood would get the one seed and AGWSR. We’re glad we got Ackley-Geneva, we’re ready for them. We think that we’re really excited for that game, very excited. We just need to finish out the rest of this year and get some wins and get the momentum and try to get through the district, keep going.”

The Bearcats had yet to play their first-round opponent, but were scheduled against them later on in the week.

“We go to Rockford, and we play them on Friday, there,” coach Almelien said. “It will be nice to actually play at the field we’re going to play on in district. Our district is very good, just like our conference, there’s a lot of good pitchers, and a lot of good teams. If you don’t show up to play your best every night, it’s going to be rough.”

West Fork 14, North Butler 0 (6)

W.Fork         121   046  -      14 8     0

N. Butler      000   000  -      0   4     1

Winning battery– Kellen Cameron and Nate Hubka. Losing battery – Kolben Miller, Colby Wilkerson (6) and Chet Buss. Two or more hits– WF (Carter Meints 3, Noah Maske, Cameron); NB, None. 2B– None. SAC– WF (Maske). SB– WF (Meints 4, Maske 2, Levi Janssen, Ian Latham, Casyn Guerrero). HBP– WF (Meints, Janssen); NB, None. RBI– WF (Kayden Ames 3, Meints 2, Cameron 2, Maske, Jakob Washington).