Chickasaws claim district baseball title

From 2-6 to district champs, the New Hampton baseball team accomplished two major goals Saturday night as the Chickasaws rolled to a 10-0 win over Sumner-Fredericksburg in a Class 2A district title game.
After a dreadful start, the Chickasaws set new goals before wrapping up the second week of an abbreviated season. A winning record. And a district championship.
Check those boxes as New Hampton improved to 11-9 and earned a substate date with second-ranked North Linn, a 14-4 winner over Jesup, on Tuesday in Waverly.
New Hampton appeared to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning when Cael Leistikow launched a shot over the left-field fence. But a Chickasaw runner in front of him missed third base, and instead Leistikow had to settle for a double and New Hampton had just a 1-0 lead.
The Chickasaws upped the lead to 3-0 in the second, thanks to daring baserunning. Conner Gorman hit a pop up that barely made it the outfield grass but Carson Babcock tagged and beat the throw to the plate. A batter later, courtesy runner Alex Kriener scored on a passed ball.
New Hampton broke open the game in the fourth inning, erupting for four runs — one of which came when Gorman took a hit-by-pitch off his helmet and the rest coming on Hunter Pesek’s triple.
Meanwhile, Austin Hemann and Drake Wemark combined on a four-hitter. Hemann went the first 3 2/3 innings and got the win to improve to 6-0 while Wemark struck out five and didn’t walk a batter in 2 1/3 innings of work.
The district title is New Hampton’s fourth in the past five years, but as Leistikow put it, “we want more, we want that icing on the cake.” And that frosting would be a second straight trip to the state tournament.
— For more on this story, see the July 21 Tribune