Eagles baseball hits road bumps in second week

The Eagles took some lumps in a 2-2 week.

West Hancock baseball defeated North Union in Britt, 4-1.

They then faced North Iowa in Buffalo Center on Wednesday and lost 2-3.

On Thursday, The Eagles recovered from their lost and blew out West Bend-Mallard, 17-5, on the road.

Finally, on Friday, West Hancock lost to Forest City at home, 2-12.

Against North Union, the defense held strong against North Union after giving up the only run in the first inning.

Braden Walk pitched a solid game allowing only two hits and striking out five batters in the seven innings of play.

“He kept them off balance [and] was able to control his pitches,” coach Jeremy Barnes said.

Walk was able to put the ball in play where the team behind could make the easy outs.

The Eagles were able to secure a victory through a two-run inning in the fourth.

Brayden Leerar and Walk had two hits.

West Hancock moved on to North Iowa with less thrilling results.

Barnes believes the team dropped a game that they shouldn’t have lost, citing that the team didn’t appear focused in the match.

The team only had one hit from Walk.

“We weren’t ready to hit the ball,” Barnes said.

Defensively, the team gave up four hits and two walks; just enough for the Bison to come away with the one-run victory.

Motivated by the loss, the Eagles faced a similar pitcher against West Bend-Mallard and showed what could have been.

West Hancock batters reached base on 12 walks and had six hits to surge in the score.

“When you can put yourself in position to score runs with hitting the ball, you’re going to give yourself a chance every time,” coach Barnes said.

Cayson Barnes had two hits and batted in four runners.

Tate Hagen and Blake Baker both had 3 RBIs as well.

Against Forest City, the Indians held a one-run lead over the Eagles up till the second half of the game.

The game started to fall out of favor for West Hancock in the final three innings, giving up 10 runs.

Cayson Barnes served well in the opening four innings of the game, but struggled to put away innings quick enough.

He reached 90 pitches in that span, forcing coach Barnes to throw in Leerar for an inning and Mathew Francis, who never pitched before, for two innings.

“Basically, we ran out of pitching,” Barnes said.

As a result, the Indians were able to rack up 11 hits while holding West Hancock to just two. The Eagles will have a rematch with Forest City on Tuesday in Forest City.

They will face Emmetsburg at home on Thursday and Bishop Garrigan on Friday in Britt to finish out the regular season.

Games will start at 7:30 p.m.