Storm Lake Iowa — Boyden-Hull-Rock Valley downed host team Storm Lake 3-0 in the semifinals of Class 3A District 2 baseball Saturday night. The Nighthawks will square off against Sergeant Bluff Luton in the Monday night District final. Sergeant Bluff Luton ousted Spirit Lake in the early game 8-2. We’ll bring you the broadcast on KIWA AM 1550 and FM 100.7. We’ll stream the game from the website at www.kiwaradio.com.
A 2-run fourth inning and another run in the sixth by the Nighthawks would be the only scoring in the contest. In the fourth, Cade Moser and Brett Van Der Wilt both reached on back-to-back singles. With Moser at third and Van Der Wilt at second Eric Salazar pushed a perfect safety squeeze up the first base line. Moser scored on the play and Van Der Wilt broke for third. An error on the late throw to first allowed Van Der Wilt to score the second run of the inning and the Nighthawks were up 2-0.
In the sixth inning, Van Der Wilt walked and stole second. On a ground ball to short he waited for the throw to first and broke for third. The Tornadoes got the out at first but the throw across the diamond went into foul territory down the left field line. That allowed Van Der Wilt to score from third with the final run of the game.
Senior Zach Noble got the win throwing 6 and two-thirds innings of shut out ball before Dylan Harman got the only batter he faced to line out to short. It was a true pitchers’ dual as Noble gave up just 2 hits and struck out 5. He walked just 2 batters. Freshman Mark Eddie took the hard luck loss. He threw a 4-hitter and walked just 1 batter while striking out 10 in the contest.
The Nighthawks take a 15-8 record into Monday nights District final against Sergeant Bluff Luton who comes in at 25-12-1.
