WATERLOO\u00a0\u2014 The Angola Hornets are enjoying a resurgence on the baseball field.<\/p>\n
Now, they hope to add a sectional championship to their Northeast Corner Conference tournament championship from earlier this season.<\/p>\n
The Hornets (23-6) will get that chance Monday when they face DeKalb in the championship game.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the Hornets were 8-19. Two years ago, they were 12-12. Last year, they were 11-15.<\/p>\n
Saturday, Angola scored twice in the sixth inning for a 6-4 victory over the Leo Lions in the morning game of the DeKalb Sectional.<\/p>\n
It was a game filled with errors on both sides of the field, but junior Landen Bussard and senior Landen Leach did enough on the mound to give their team a chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a good spot in our program where I can be mad about a lot of things, but we still get a sectional win,\u201d Angola coach Clint Davis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat says something for our program (that we\u2019re) kind of growing up a little bit. We weren\u2019t real clean and then we made a couple real good defensive plays late.<\/p>\n
\u201cBussard kept us in the ballgame. He\u2019s a bulldog. He wanted the ball and he\u2019s been really good for us lately,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got some bunts down, two sac flies, ends up being a two-run difference. Those are the kind of things you have to win a sectional game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the home half of the first, Leo (15-6) took the lead without a hit when Nolan Butcher led off with a walk, stole second and wound up at third after a sacrifice bunt. He would score on a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
Angola got on the board in the third when Myles Steury picked up a two-out double, moved to third on a balk and scored on a wild pitch.<\/p>\n
The Lions took the lead in the bottom half of the frame when Camron Peters singled, took third on a Dominic Rennecker double and scored on Jace Pidlisny\u2019s sascrifice fly.<\/p>\n
The Hornets took the lead for good in the fourth thanks to some timely hitting and three Leo errors.<\/p>\n
Gavin Hunt started things off when he was hit by a pitch. Leach followed with a single. Hunt scored on Ryan Stuckey\u2019s sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
Next, Jacob Fraley reached on an infield hit. He took second and Leach went to third when the Leo second baseman threw wildly to first on the play. Both runners scored on a booted grounder off the bat of Garrett Sorgen for a 4-2 lead.<\/p>\n
The Hornets extended their margin with two more in the sixth.<\/p>\n
Stuckey was hit by a pitch and Fraley followed with a single. Stuckey scored on a sacrifice fly by Myles Stuckey while Fraley came home on Bussard\u2019s two-out single.<\/p>\n
The Lions fought back with two in the same inning.<\/p>\n
First, Max Shreck singled while Butcher was safe on an error and Peters singled to fill the bases.<\/p>\n
Leach, who took over on the mound for Angola in the sixth, retired the next two batters, but issued a bases-loaded walk to Leo\u2019s Patrick Drudy. Butcher later scored on a wild pitch to cut the margin to 6-4.<\/p>\n
Neither team was able to add to its run total the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
The Hornets got two defensive gems with a foul pop caught against the fence and a sliding catch in foul territory.<\/p>\n
Key to this game was that Angola kept Leo off the scoreboard in both the second and fourth innings after the Lions loaded the bases but couldn\u2019t score. The Lions stranded 11 runners on base in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got out of a couple of jams,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe maybe didn\u2019t eliminate it, but we slowed it down right? (Leo) didn\u2019t score three or four.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s things that will kill you in sectional play when you give up those crooked numbers and innings. We limited those crooked numbers which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERLOO\u00a0\u2014 The Angola Hornets are enjoying a resurgence on the baseball field. Now, they hope to add a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[1151,54321,6825,114994,132427,132415,132421,132422,132420,132423,132428,132424,132414,6836,6835,97228,132417,132419,132418,6800,132416,132425,6822,6797,6809,132426],"class_list":["post-260430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-angola","tag-angola","tag-ball-and-bat-games","tag-ball-games","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-field","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-batted-ball","tag-bunt-baseball","tag-fielding-error","tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","tag-grass-field-surfaces","tag-lawn-games","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-outdoor-sports","tag-sacrifice-fly","tag-stolen-base","tag-team-activities","tag-team-sports","tag-turf-sports","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}