(Anita) Coming up on Monday, KSOM will air CAM’s Class 1A State Baseball Tournament game against New London. The matchup will take place at Merchant’s Park in Carroll.
The 8th rated Cougars enter the state quarterfinal on a 12 game win streak and are 27-2. The 3rd ranked Tigers won their first 25 games of the year and are 28-1. CAM coach Dan Daugherty says of New London, “They are solid in all areas. They hit the ball well as a team. They’ve got a couple of pitchers with some impressive stats. Defensively it looks like they make every play. They are solid all the way around.”
They’ve allowed more than four runs only once. In fact, the team ERA of 1.22 is second best in the state. Opponents are hitting only .172 against them which is 10th best in 1A. At the plate they rank 9th in Class 1A with a .356 team batting average, they’ve hit the 6th most home runs with 13, and rate 9th in runs scored. Coach Daugherty identifies some of the key personnel for New London.
“The (Kooper) Schulte kid at shortstop is hitting over .450 with six home runs. We need to try and keep him off base. Tucker Gibbar is hitting over .400. Pitching wise Dereck Santiago’s ERA is 0.47 and it looks like Schulte comes in as a closer. He’s averaging over two strikeouts per game.”
New London does have the advantage of having played at the state tourney a year ago. Everyone on CAM’s roster will be making their state baseball debut, but coach Daugherty isn’t too concerned about that. “No. Not really. I know they played there last year and lost in the first round. We’ve played in some big games. I don’t think this group of kids is going to be effected by the atmosphere at all.”
The Tigers fell 4-3 in the first round one year ago to eventual state runner-up Kee. This season the South Division champs of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference have allowed less than three runs in 22 of their 29 games.
Pregame coverage will come your way at around 4:15 p.m. The winner plays in the semifinal on Wednesday night against either Lisbon or 2nd ranked Newman Catholic.
CAM coach Dan Daugherty:
