By: Matt Scher, matts@977thebolt.com
Humboldt, IA – The Humboldt Wildcats baseball team split a North Central Conference doubleheader with the Clear Lake Lions in North Central Conference play Tuesday night.
In game one of the doubleheader, the Wildcats and Lions were scoreless through the first five innings. Humboldt would strike first in the sixth inning after Caleb Fredin hit into what would have been an inning-ending doubleplay, but an error on the throw to first base allowed Chase Flaherty to score to give Humboldt the 1-0 lead.
In the top of the seventh with the Lions down to their final strike, catcher Ryder Stark hit a ground ball that was misplayed at third to put the tying run on base. The next batter, Hudson Carney, hit a game-tying RBI double to tie the game at 1. After a wild pitch allowed Carney to advance to third base, Humboldt’s Valley Davis got Clear Lake’s Jaxson Anderson to ground out to the mound for the final out of the inning. A scoreless bottom half of the seventh for Humboldt forced extra innings.
In the top of the eighth inning, Clear Lake would record the third out on the base paths after Finn Carney was caught stealing second base. In the bottom half of the inning, Humboldt’s Jackson Flaherty led off with a single, stole second base, and would score the winning run on a walk-off single to right center by Chase Flaherty.
Humboldt head baseball coach Jason Thurm on the game one 2-1 walk-off victory.
“We showed resiliency and being able to come back there after we’d given up that run there. So that was a real nice win for us. We saw one of the better pitchers [Jaxson Anderson] in our conference, probably in this part of the state. I was happy with our bats. I thought we battled. I thought we competed. We didn’t put up a lot of runs in that first game, but he’s a real good pitcher. And for us to get out with the win, we were pleased.”
Humboldt’s Valley Davis went the distance on the mound recording a line of eight innings pitched, allowing one unearned run on five hits, one walk, one hit batter, and six strikeouts. Davis, battling an ankle injury, was limited to just pitching the first game of the doubleheader.
“Most of it was, I’m sure, based off adrenaline, feeling good out there. But I just meant a lot. We knew this was going to be a tough game, and I had to be the man for the job. I knew that coming into this morning. It means a lot to my team, I think, that I went out there and did that and I think that just is another way for us to grow, to show that we’re going to give it our all for each other no matter what.”
In game two, the Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings, scoring twice in the first inning on a Griffin Groat two-run homer and one run in the second off an Avyon Sutterfield RBI single. The Wildcats would maintain the 3-0 lead going into the fifth inning.
Clear Lake scored six unanswered runs by sending nine men to the plate in both the fifth and sixth innings, scoring three runs each frame to take a 6-3 lead. The two innings saw a total of 18 batters come to the plate, earning nine walks, three batters hit by a pitch, and one two-RBI double in the sixth. The Wildcats failed to score in the final five innings.
Thurm on the game two 6-3 loss.
“Felt like we were in pretty good shape and I just felt like we got a little lethargic there in those middle innings. We had some opportunities to put a couple more runs across there and runner at third base with less than two outs, I think, a couple times there, and unfortunately we were unable to do that. That’s just something that we’re going to have to work on, and just having the right approach and mentality and being able to get the ball in play there. We got to be able to come in and throw strikes and we didn’t do that.”
Humboldt comes out of the doubleheader with a record of 5-1 (3-1 NCC). The team returns to action at Newell-Fonda on Thursday in non-conference play.