The high school baseball and softball seasons for the Greene County Rams began late last week. Baseball head coach John Hupp felt confident about pitching with question marks about hitting going into the season. Softball head coach Tom Kennedy felt good about scoring some runs, but the main questions centered around pitching and defense. The early returns say both coaches were spot on with the preseason assessments of their teams.
Greene County baseball opened Thursday night with a non-conference 2-1 victory at Perry. Ben Wilkins threw a complete game two-hitter with nine strikeouts and the run off him was unearned. The Rams were blanked the first five innings before Wade Adcock homered to center field for a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning. Adcock walked, then came around to score the eventual winning run in the top of the seventh on a Bryce Hoyle two-out double to the fence in right center. Greene County finished the game with five hits. The Rams dropped a 3-1 decision on Friday night in Des Moines to Saydel (4-0) in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference opener. Austin Delp threw a complete game, allowing two earned runs on four hits and a walk while striking out six batters. The Rams hit safely just three times vs. the Eagles and the run scored was unearned in the seventh inning. Adcock had an RBI double. Tom Gannon also doubled and Wilkins added a single. Greene County hitters struck out 10 times.
On the softball diamond, the season started in Des Moines vs. Saydel on Friday night. The first at-bat of the season produced eight runs and Coach Kennedy’s team held on for a 12-10 victory, which also was a conference game. After players got home at midnight, or later, they were back on the bus early Saturday for a 9 a.m. contest vs. Boone at the Ogden tournament. Greene County lost 13-0 in three innings to the Toreadors. Game two resulted in a loss by a final of 8-1 to Martensdale-St. Mary’s, and the Webster City Lynx handed the Rams a 14-5 loss in game three. That’s four games in less than 21 hours and 45 runs allowed. Greene County hitters were blanked vs. Boone, but did put together 26 hits in the other three games combined. The defense allowed several unearned runs in the four games.
The Greene County teams play Coon Rapids-Bayard tomorrow. Baseball is in Jefferson with the varsity game broadcast on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com with coverage starting around 7 p.m. Softball is in Coon Rapids with the varsity first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.