Gehlen Catholic scored a late run to top Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 4-3 June 2 at Le Mars.
Each team had scored three times in the first inning before the pitching took over. With the narrow loss, HMS dipped to 0-2 in the War Eagle Conference and to 2-5 in all games.
“I loved how we came out and put up three runs right away,” commented Hawk head coach Jeremy Gloden. “We put a lot of good swings on the ball and put the pressure on them. Unfortunately, their pitcher settled in and limited us for the remainder of the game. I was very proud of how we battled and played great defense to keep them at bay. Tyson (Tessum) and Tanner (Tesch) were a great duo on the mound and they both pitched very well. In the end, they were able to score on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth and we were unable to respond. Gehlen is a great team and we gave them everything we had. I’m hoping this creates confidence and gives us a boost moving into the heart of our schedule next week.”
Starting pitcher Tessum worked three innings. When the first batter in the fourth drew a walk, Tesch took his turn on the mound. Tessum’s line showed three earned runs on four hits with three walks, two hit batters and one strikeout. Tesch finished the game, allowing the one unearned run on one hit. He fanned three batters and hit two. The Hawks played error-free ball.
In that Gehlen sixth, a batter was hit by a pitch to put a runner aboard with one out. After a fly ball for the second out, the Jay’s got a key hit, sending the runner to third. From there, he scored on the wild pitch. Gehlen’s Gabe Wiltgen got the complete game win. He yielded three earned runs on five hits but struck out 13 Hawk batters.
Trenton Vollink led off the game with a walk and Tanner Tesch stroked a one-out single. Jacob Cates singled to score Vollink and Bradley Van Beek followed with a base hit to drive in Tesch. Cates came home when Blake Meedering grounded out to the shortstop.
The only other Hawk hits were a double by Meendering in the fourth inning and a single by Cates in the sixth. Each team stranded five baserunners.
HMS 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 3
Gehlen 3 0 0 0 0 1 x – 4