A couple of insurance runs in the sixth eased some of the pressure on Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn and the Hawks came through with a 4-2 victory over George-Little Rock June 29 at Hartley. The Hawks doubled their run total when Dawson Schiphoff tripled home Trenton Vollink and then scored from third on a balk. Schiphoff also got the save, relieving Samuel Heyn, who had thrown 114 pitches.
“This was a good showing of all three phases coming together,” remarked Hawk head coach Jeremy Gloden. “Solid pitching by Sam, tough defense and timely hitting. Dawson’s triple in the sixth was big for us. Getting those extra insurance runs made the seventh a little easier for us. Dawson also did a nice job of coming in and closing out the game. I was very glad we could get a win for our three seniors (Heyn, Schiphoff and Ben Haack) on senior night.”
In 6-1/3 innings of work Heyn struck out nine, walked five and allowed three hits. The Mustangs’ first inning run was unearned. Twice Heyn was able to catch runners leading too far off first base. Pitching 2/3 of an inning, Schiphoff gave up a hit and fanned two. The games’ lone error belonged to HMS.
The Hawks answered the visitors from the Siouxland Conference with a two-spot in the bottom of the first. Schiphoff, batting leadoff, was struck by a pitch. He stole second and went to third as Heyn delivered a base hit. Courtesy runner Ethan Diehm took second without a throw. A single by Jacob Cates brought in Schiphoff with Diehm going to third. Keaton Graves followed with the third hit of the inning, driving in Diehm.
In the sixth it was a single that put Vollink in position to be driven in by Schiphoff’s three-bagger. The half dozen HMS hits included a single by Jordan Ortega in the fifth. The Hawks standed eight runners while George-Little Rock left seven on base.
GLR 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 1
HMS 2 0 0 0 0 2 x – 4