The Roland-Story Norsemen baseball team hit the road on Monday night, to face off with the Van Meter Bulldogs at Van Meter High School. The Bulldogs entered Monday night 3-0 and ranked #1 in Class 2A, as the defending Class 2A State Champions. Roland-Story entered at 1-2.
The Norsemen kept within reach of the top-ranked Bulldogs all night, but struggled to get hits on the board, as Van Meter starter Ganon Archer pitched 6 1/3 innings of one-hit ball, striking out 15 batters. Archer’s counterpart in Roland-Story’s Alex Berends pitched well against a vaunted Bulldogs lineup, going 6 innings, walking 2 and striking out 6, while allowing 3 runs off 4 hits.
Van Meter first basemen Ike Speltz kicked off the scoring with a 2-run RBI single that scored Jack Petit and Forest City-transfer Reese Moore to put the Bulldogs up 2-0. Austin Baumhover would later tack on an RBI triple, with Rylan Wiedman also scoring a run, to give Van Meter a 4-0 lead and the win.
Roland-Story returns to action on Tuesday, when they host the Southeast Valley Jaguars at Norsemen Field at Story City, with first pitch at 7:30 PM.