Falcons win 1st district title since 2001

STORY CITY – Aplington-Parkersburg baseball's three seniors set a district title as one of their goals this summer.

After a 17-year wait, the Falcons are once again district champions, 2-1 winners over South Hamilton in Saturday's 2A District 13 final in Story City. But the Falcons have another goal in mind.

A trip to the state tournament is on the line Tuesday as A-P (22-7) plays ninth-ranked Van Meter (28-8) at 7 p.m. in Marshalltown in a 2A substate final.

"Now that we're there," A-P senior Alec Oberhauser said of reaching the substate final, "we don't want it to end there. We want to get to Principal Park."

Oberhauser got the call to start Saturday's game and after a troublesome third inning that resulted in the Hawks' only run of the game -- a bases-loaded walk -- the Grand View basketball commit settled into a fast, but controlled rhythm, finishing six innings of work with just three hits scattered, six strikeouts and five walks.

The younger Oberhauser, Riley, got the nod for the seventh inning and the sophmore allowed just one walk in the save situation.

"The underclassmen are all working as hard as we are and following the leadership," said Coby Hoff, who along with Alec Oberhauser and Grant Truax comprise A-P's senior trio. "It's great to see all nine guys working their tails off on the field."

South Hamilton had two key threats that didn't pan out.

In the first inning, the Hawks put the first two runners on the corners with no outs. But after a pop-out, Brodey Key caught the tail runner trying to steal second and a groundout back to the mound ended the threat.

After Oberhauser's bases-loaded walk in the third inning, the senior settled in with back-to-back strikeouts to leave the bases loaded and avoid further damage.

"I think his breathing was off and he was struggling a bit with the heat," A-P head coach Roger Oberhauser said of Alec's third inning on the mound. "He came to the dugout, got some water, calmed himself down and took care of business."

A-P's two runs came off the bat of Aaron Price, the Falcon shortstop who showed what he could do in the batter box on Saturday after showcasing defensive poise in Tuesday's win against Dike-New Hartford.

Price had a hard-hit single in the fourth inning to score Carter Cuvelier, and brought Cuvelier home again in the bottom of the sixth inning on a safety squeeze bunt that broke a 1-1 tie and suddenly put the Hawks behind the 8-ball and down to their final three outs in the seventh.

Another season for the record books is being written by A-P this summer, but Roger Oberhauser knows the Falcons aren't done yet.

"We're talking about kids that made it to state in basketball," Roger added. "The kids had confidence on the way over tonight, locked in and knew what they had to do. They battled through adversity on the plate, on the mound, battled through it and got it done."

Read more about A-P's road to the substate final in this week's Eclipse. Visit parkersburgeclipse.com in the coming days for more on Tuesday's game in Marshalltown.

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