MaKenna Kuper went 2-3 at the plate with a two-run home run into the pond in Sheffield and Sidney Schafer had a solid night in the circle as the AGWSR Cougars beat West Fork 6-3 Thursday night.
The AGWSR Cougars are not used to looking up in the standings at the likes of Grundy Center. Having won the previous 23 games against the Spartans, the Cougars have routinely been battling for conference supremacy.
AGWSR Cougar head coach Dave Showalter is happy with his team for a lot of reasons. Chief among them is their ability to keep battling. They did that Monday with a 5-4 win against Grundy Center in Ackley.
Both teams in Ackley had opportunities to score runs on Thursday night.
East Marshall, BCLUW and Thursday’s opponent AGWSR have dominated South Hardin over the past decade-plus. But that was before.
The AGWSR Cougars fell 7-6 in Gilman Wednesday night. The East Marshall Mustangs scored the winner on a walk-off single in the home seventh. Darren Veld drove in two runs while going 2-3 for the Cougars. The loss drops AGWSR to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the North Iowa Cedar League-West.
The East Marshall Mustangs defended their home diamond in LeGrand with nine runs Wednesday night. Only two of those were earned as they beat the AGWSR Cougars 9-6. The loss snapped a seven-game win streak by the Cougars who are now 7-6 overall and 2-1 in the North Iowa Cedar League-West.
The AGWSR Cougars and BCLUW Comets have produced some heated games over the years. The winner usually has the inside trek on a North Iowa Cedar League-West title.
Every Cougar batter but one collected at least one hit in their 9-0 win over BCLUW in Ackley Monday night. In all, AGWSR booked 14 hits including four doubles and a Bo Gerbracht home run.
It’s no secret that the AGWSR Cougars and Jesup J-Hawks are different teams than they were even last year. AGWSR went 11-5 and reached the Regional Finals. Jesup finished 14-5. This year’s editions are shadows of the teams that dot the State Tournament history book.
After two games of combining for just four hits and no runs, AGWSR was looking for an offensive lift.
