Page 13 - Clear Lake Mirror Reporter E-Edition 7-8-2015

“We would love to see as many from our great GHV
community come out to support our kids in their last Softball
regular season game Wednesday night (tonight) as Results
they battle for a conference championship.” Page 14

CLHS Head July 8, 2015 • Page 13
Baseball Coach
Seth Thompson
Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter

CL and Humboldt tied for NCC title
The sixth ranked (2A) Clear Lake baseball hits, struck out two and walked two in the game. enough runs to allow our pitching and defense to
team (22-10) is tied for the North Central Con- “Cooper pitched well enough on most nights win this game for us.” Clear Lake’s Brad Burns was the winning pitcher against Garrigan on Tuesday, June 30. Burns
ference lead with three games remaining. Coach to give us a win but on this particular night runs The Lions scored their runs early, plating struck out three batters. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy
Seth Thompson is encouraging all Lion fans to were very hard to come by,” said Thompson. batters in the first and third innings. Algona
come to the diamond tonight (Wednesday, July CL 7, Garrigan 2 tried to rally with one run in the sixth, but Ma- this time the team did a better job figuring It was a game of big innings, as the Li-
8) to see the team play their last regular season The Lions wasted no time in getting on top son and the Lion defense shut down the threat. out Halko and the Lynx defense made a few ons put seven runs on the board in the first
game against St. Ed’s. “We would love to see as of Bishop Garrigan (24-7) Tuesday, June 30. Clear Lake’s two runs were scored with six miscues. inning and added another in the fourth.
many from our great community come out to They scored five runs in the first, then added two hits provided by Brock Adams, McHenry, Keer- “As a coach it was great to see our kids Ethan McHenry was stellar on the
support our kids in their last regular season game more for good measure in the sixth on their way an, Hogan, Rowdy Yates and Matt Stephany. get a chance to see the same pitcher that beat bump for the Lions in the early going, but
Wednesday night as they battle for a conference to a 7-2 victory. McHenry was credited with both RBIs. us a few weeks ago and get 11 hits and eight in the fifth the junior began to tire and the
championship,” he said. “Garrigan hasn’t lost too many games this runs this time around. He is one of the bet- Lynx jumped on the opportunity. Coach
A one-run loss to Humboldt last week year so it was nice to pick up a win against them CL 17, GHV 1 ter pitchers in our conference and has been Thompson pulled McHenry and brought
put the Lions in a tie for the NCC title. The tonight,” said Coach Thompson. He praised the The Lions scored 17 runs on nine hits, as tough to beat,” said Coach Thompson. See LIONS BASEBALL on page 15
two teams have split during the regular season. play of his pitcher, Brad Burns, who was making they cruised past Garner-Hayfield/Ventura (8-
Humboldt’s other loss came to Hampton-Du- just his second varsity start. Burns, a junior, got 17) on July 2. The offensive output was lead
mont, while the Lions dropped a game to Web- the win, allowing five hits, striking out three and by Keeran’s home run which scored three runs.
ster City. walking one in five innings of work. Sophomore Keeran also had a single in the game.
The Lions bounced back from their rough Jacob Peterson threw the final two innings, giv- “This was a pretty special night for Clear
start to the week with three conference wins and ing up three hits. He struck out one and walked Lake baseball, with nine seniors taking the field
a show of strength against non-conference Gar- one. on senior night and not just winning, but in im-
ner-Hayfield Ventura to move to 22-10 overall. Ethan McHenry fueled the offense with pressive fashion,” said Coach Thompson. “This
Humboldt 2, CL 1 three of the teams’ 11 hits and two RBIs. Mer- is the first time as a coach here that we have been
Runs were hard to come by at Humboldt rill, Keeran and Hogan had two hits apiece. able to graduate nine seniors and to see them all
June 29 and as a result the Wildcats (18-5) post- Parker Truesdell stroked a double that scored a out there playing and playing well was pretty
ed a 2-1 NCC victory over the Lions. run. special. Mitch put the exclamation point on the
“Coming into the season we knew the game CL 2, Algona 1 night with a huge home run into the tree in cen-
at Humboldt would be the toughest win to get The Lions survived a late rally by defend- ter field.”
in conference and unfortunately we just came up ing conference champion Algona (13-14) and Two more seniors also figured big in the
a few hits short tonight,” said Coach Thompson. escaped with a 2-1 victory Wednesday, July 1. scoring, as Brock Adams had two hits, as well,
“Their pitcher was pumping it in there pretty Coach Thompson put junior Ben Mason and had a team-high four RBIs. Devin Uhlen-
good tonight and battled through a lot of three- on the mound. Mason delivered by holding hopp had one hit and three RBIs.
ball counts without giving up a walk.” the Bulldogs to four hits. He struck out six and Brandon Tofte was the winning pitcher. He
Brenden Schnell limited the Lions to just walked one. limited the Cardinals to four hits. The senior
five singles from five different batters. Cooper “Ben has started five games for us this year struck out three and walked two.
Merrill, Mitch Keeran, Jacob Hogan, Ben Ma- so far and they have all been against 4A teams,
son and Matt Stephany were the only Lions to so he was definitely battle-tested coming into CL 8, Webster City 6
reach base on hits. Stephanie’s hit scored one run this game against a good Algona team and the Revenge was likely on the Lions’ minds as
in the second inning. defending conference champions. He did a they faced Webster City (7-13) in a conference
Humboldt tied the score in the fourth and nice job of attacking the strike zone and keep- battle July 3. On June 16, the Lynx handed the
earned the win in the bottom of the seventh with ing them off balance and our offense gave us just Lions one of their two conference losses this sea-
a hit off Cooper Merrill. Merrill allowed seven son. Daniel Halko, who confused the Lions on
the first go-round, was back on the mound. But

Cardinals top North Iowa and Eagle Grove
The Garner-Hayfield/Ventura baseball had two RBIs and scored two runs. Holden Forry scored two of the Cardinal’s five
GHV’s Payton James pitched against Lake Mills on Friday night. The Bulldogs won by one run, 7-6. -Reporter team split six games in action last week, Hutcheson smacked a double that brought runs, while Joynt, James and Chase Theo-
photo by Chris Barragy moving their overall record to 8-17. in three runs. He also scored three runs for bald all crossed the plate once.
the Cards. James and Forry had one stolen base
GHV 2, North Iowa 0 James, Forry and Burke each had two apiece.
GHV 15, North Iowa 5 stolen bases. Clear Lake 17, GHV 1
The Cardinals picked up a pair of Meyers earned the win, pitching all six It was a tough night for the Cardinals
North Iowa Conference wins against North innings. He struck out four and walked when they traveled to Clear Lake to face
Iowa on Monday, June 29. GHV won the four. He gave up eight hits. the 6th ranked Lions on Thursday, July 2.
first game, 2-0, and the nightcap, 15-5. GHV 5, Eagle Grove 3 Clear Lake lived up to their ranking, as they
Payton James was the winning pitcher The Cardinals started strong and end- downed GHV 17-1.
in the first game, throwing seven strikes in ed strong in a 5-3 win over Eagle Grove on The Lions dominated in the second in-
seven innings. He gave up only four hits in Wednesday, July 1. GHV scored three runs ning, scoring 16 runs. The game was over
the game. in the first inning and two runs in the sev- in four innings.
James smacked a double that got Har- enth inning to capture the victory. Kaleb Bruggerman took the loss on
ley Forry across the plate. Nick Joynt also Colton Schroeder was the winning the mound for the Cardinals. He walked
connected on a double and also drove in pitcher, pitching all seven innings. He five, gave up four hits and allowed 12 runs.
Forry. Forry and Ryan Meyers both had struck out one batter and walked another. Holden Hutcheson also saw time on the
singles. He allowed only four hits in the game. mound. He struck out one, walked one,
The fifth inning was huge for the Car- GHV connected on a total of eight gave up four hits and five runs.
dinals in the second game, with nine runs hits. Joynt, James and Hutcheson all con- GHV managed four hits against a
scored. nected on two hits apiece. Forry and Mey- tough Clear Lake pitcher. Hutcheson had
Ryley Kozisek and Connor Burke led ers each had one hit. two hits and scored the Cardinal’s lone run
the offense. Kozisek had a hit that brought James and Hutcheson had one RBI
in four runners. He also scored two runs. each. See CARDINALS on page 14
Burke had two hits, one being a triple. He

CL softball team CL and GHV begin Class
records first victory 3A Region 2 play tonight
of the season
Clear Lake and Garner-Hayfield/Ventura softball teams
It was a big week for the Clear Lake softball team. The Lions will begin Class 3A Region 2 post-season play tonight
finally put together a complete game and notched their first vic- (Wednesday, July 8).
tory. They demonstrated continued better play throughout the The Lions will travel to Cresco to take on Crestwood in a
week, but suffered four losses. 7 p.m. game. The winner will advance to play wither Osage
or New Hampton Friday night, July 10, at Cresco.
Humboldt 9, CL 4 Clear Lake’s Erin O’Tool beats the throw to home plate to score a run for the Lions. The team topped Newman, GHV will host Algona in their first round game on
Humboldt pitching limited Clear Lake to just five hits, but 9-4, for their first victory of the season. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy Wednesday, July 8. Game time is 7 p.m. The winner will
the gutsy Lions would not go down without a fight. They rallied meet Estherville-Lincoln Central or Forest City in the second
for four runs on the seventh inning, but came up short, 9-4. Algona 4, CL 4 The game was close throughout, with Algona round. That game will be at 7 p.m. Friday, July 10, at E-LC.
“The girls were working hard at the bats,” said Coach Megan The Lions and Bulldogs were in a close battle scoring first in the first inning. Clear Lake answered
Young. “We are still working toward a complete game.” Wednesday. Algona was able to score the winning with a run in the second and each team scored twice Lions and Cards both
Erin O’Tool had a pair of hits and scored one run to lead the run in the seventh inning, 5-4. in the third. Algona took the lead in the sixth, 4-3. compete in District 4
team. Michala Ouverson and Chloe Mueller each had hits, with “The girls continue to improve and show what Each team put a run on the board in the final frame.
Mueller getting an RBI. Kayla Ritter didn’t have a hit, but put they are capable of. They have a lot to be proud of, The Lions scored their runs with just six hits. Clear Lake and Garner-Hayfield/Ventura have each been
the ball in play enough to score two RBIs. Rachel Barillas had the especially on senior and parents night,” said Coach Jones and O’Tool each had two hits, with one of assigned to District 4 for the Class 2A post-season.
Lions’ other hit. Young. O’Tool’s being a double. Fyfe and Barillas had one The Lions have received a first round bye. They will take
Kiersten Baalson took the loss. She gave up 12 hits and The Lions have three seniors on the team this each. Mueller and Baalson were credited with RBIs. on the winner of the West Fork versus Central Springs game
walked three over seven innings. year. First baseman Carney Frahm, designated hit- Baalson gave up seven hits in seven innings of scheduled to be played Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m. at Clear
CL 9, Newman 4 ter Michala Ouverson and third baseman Katie work. She struck out four and walked two. Lake. The Lions will begin play against the winner in a 7 p.m.
The Lions turned the tables on the competition the next Hewett were honored before the game. contest Tuesday, July 14, at Clear Lake.
night. They got their first win, 9-4, over Newman Catholic. See CL SOFTBALL on page 15 GHV begins play at 5 p.m. Saturday, July 11. They will
“They finally put all of the pieces together. The girls showed meet Lake Mills in their first round game. The winner will ad-
command in the field and in the batters box,” said Coach Young. vance to meet Forest City at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 14, at Clear
The Lions amassed 12 hits in the win, led by Michaela Niles Lake.
and O’Tool with three apiece. Each girl had a double; O’Tool Winners from each side of the bracket will play the Dis-
finished with three RBIs, while Niles had two. trict final at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 18, in Clear Lake.
Lexi Jones and Mueller each had two hits, with Mueller bat- The District winner will meet the winner from District
ting in two runs. 3 in a Sub-State game slated for 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 21, at
Tori Fyfe and Kayla Ritter each had singles and RBIs. Bishop Garrigan, Algona.
Reagan Brackey got the win on the mound. She held the Teams competing in District 3 are: St. Mary’s Storm Lake,
Knights to six hits. Manson Northwest Webster, Alta/Aurelia, Sioux Central,
Sioux Rapids, Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire, Bishop
Garrigan, Newell-Fonda, North Union and West Bend-Mal-
lard.