Le Mars had their season come to an end last night dropping a heart breaker to Spencer by a final of 3-2.
Le Mars started things off on a good note in the bottom of the first inning. The first three Bulldog batters reached base. Cal Eckstaine led off with a base hit and Brady Williams knocked him in on another base hit. Brady Williams made it all the way to third and Ethan Kuiken scored him on a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 ball game. In the top of the third inning, Spencer responded by a scoring a run on a base hit from cleanup hitter Kale Dodge.
The game remained 2-1 all the way to the top of the seventh inning when the wheels fell off for Le Mars. The Bulldogs allowed Spencer to reach on five straight hits and score two runs to take a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning. The inning could have been a lot worse had it not been for a Reece Spieler outfield assist for the first out of the seventh inning that kept Le Mars in the lead for a moment. The Bulldogs had no response in the bottom of the seventh. They went down in order as they watched their season come to an end.
Following the first inning, Le Mars reached base four times in the final six innings of play. Head Coach Trent Eckstaine likes the contact his team was making at the plate. It just simply was not getting the results he wanted.
The seventh inning started out with some momentum for the Bulldogs following Reece Spieler’s outfield assist at the plate. Coach Eckstaine says that momentum was short lived.
The loss was jarring for Le Mars as they were the #1 seed in the substate and Spencer was the 8-seed. After the game, Coach Eckstaine wanted to put things in perspective for his team and show appreciation to his graduating group of seniors.
The Bulldog season concludes at 20-14. Spencer improves to 10-13 in 2021 and 24-1 against Le Mars dating back to 2009. The Tigers now match up with MOC-Floyd Valley in Orange City on Monday at 7:00 PM. The Bulldogs graduate five seniors off this year’s team: Donnie Daggett, Carter Arens, Braiden Hurd, Mason Parrott, and Ethan Kuiken.
Friday Scores:
Baseball:
Class 3A Substate 1:
MOC-Floyd Valley 5 Sergeant Bluff-Luton 4
Storm Lake 7 Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 2
Sioux Center 6 Bishop Heelan 5 (9 innings)
Class 4A Substate 1:
#5 Sioux City East 9 Sioux City North 1
West Des Moines Valley 7 Sioux City West 0
#2 Ankeny 16 Des Moines North 0
Class 4A Substate 8:
Norwalk 19 Council Bluffs TJ 0
#9 Waukee 10 Council Bluffs AL 0
Council Bluffs Lewis Central 12 Des Moines Hoover 2
