Left stranded: H-D misses opportunities against Class 3A Bluejays

By: 
Kristi Nixon

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HAMPTON -- Missed opportunities offensively left Hampton-Dumont's baseball team on the wrong end of a doubleheader sweep on Friday, July 1.
The Bulldogs left a grand total of 28 runners stranded in the 10-6, 12-3 doubleheader sweep by Bondurant-Farrar at home.
"Ton of guys (left) on base," H-D coach Matt Lokenvitz said. "That's what I told the kids. First game, we had some errors early, walked some guys early. I mean, we gave up 10 runs and four were earned or whatever, that wasn't real good there.
"But both games we left a ton of runners on base. I wasn't necessarily disappointed with the way we played, we just didn't come through when we needed to."
In fact, in both games there were three innings in which the Bulldogs left the bases loaded.
"It's tough," Lokenvitz said. "You are going to have those games."
The Bluejays are a Class 3A school which holds a 20-10 record after the sweep, also had a grand slam late in the second game to blow it open.
"They are a bigger school that was 18-10," Lokenvitz said. "They play bigger teams and they've got a lot of guys who they can throw out there and they are an experienced team. They've got a bunch of seniors and juniors on the team, so when we run out a couple sophomores, freshmen and an eighth-grader against them, it's a little bit tough.
"I thought Drew (Uhlenhopp) came in at the end, threw strikes and threw well for us. Jacoby threw well to start the game and that was my fault, I think I left him in one batter too many when he struggled there."
Caleb Chaney was 3-for-4 in the second game and lead-off hitter Johnny Guerrerop reached base four of the five times he came to the plate, scoring just once.
"Like I said, I wasn't disappointed with the way we played," Lokenvitz said. "It was just we had one of those games where we didn't come through when we needed it and that will happen."

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