Bulldogs sweep IF-A to get first NCC wins

HAMPTON -- One thing you can count on with a Matt Lokenvitz-coached Hampton-Dumont baseball team: he'll have his crew playing their best at the end of the season.
The Bulldogs earned their first North Central Conference victories with a sweep of Iowa Falls-Alden at home on Friday, June 30.
Caleb Chaney threw all but one pitch in a 9-1 opening win and Quinn Logan had a quality start despite throwing a lot of pitches. H-D lost the lead and the subsequent win for Logan, but re-gained it in the sixth to take the 7-6 nightcap.
"We have been putting together some good pieces," Lokenvitz said. "We just couldn't finish the game with wins and now we were able to look and say, 'hey, this team went into Webster City (Thursday) and won, the top of the conference, and we took it to them a couple of games.'
"That's what they needed to see; they need to be able to see that they are able to compete with the upper-echelon teams and know they are doing it at the right time."
Lokenvitz added that the team will be able to go into districts with confidence and win some games.
Leading 3-1 in the opener, the Bulldogs emerged with a five-run sixth with three hits, a bases-loaded walk and an IF-A error.
Chaney struck out three, but induced contact to fielders who made the plays.
"He ran into his pitch count, he threw 72 on Monday so he could only throw 108 today," Lokenvitz said. "With one batter left, he got to 104, so I didn't want to chance it, pulled him and Kent comes in and throws one pitch, gets a ground ball and a 9-1 win.
"That is why we were able to use (Justin) Kent here (in the second game) because he did such a good job in the first game. It turned out to be well-needed."
Logan was relieved on the mound after the fourth inning with a 3-2 lead and Justin Kent gave up three hits and three walks, giving up three runs with two outs in the fifth.
The Bulldogs rallied back in the sixth to start with a pair of errors at short, singles by Lukas Smith and Johnny Guerrero, the last of which chased IF-A starter Ben Scadden, a walk by Zarek Mahler and a two-run double by Dustin Miller.
The rally made a winner of Justin Kent and a loser of IF-A's Michael Kent.
After his outing, Logan emerged with a team-best ERA of 5.09.
"We were joking around because he (Logan) always gives me a hard time because the only time I put him in there is when we have bases loaded, we're down three runs and he has to go in there and try to shut them down," Lokenvitz said. "I told him I was going to get him a start one of these games.
"He threw a lot of pitches, a lot of walks, got close to 100 pitches and forced Kent to come in sooner than we would have liked, but he did what he needed to do, they didn't hit him hard, he kept them down and gave us a chance to win. Ultimately, with our pitching staff, that is all you can ask."
H-D improved to 6-13-2.
~ Due to the holiday deadline, this story will not appear in the July 5 edition of The Chronicle