New Hampton wins fifth consecutive conference title

The New Hampton baseball team is once again Northeast Iowa Conference champs after splitting a doubleheader against Charles City on Tuesday night. The Chickasaws are co-champs along with Waverly-Shell Rock, who also split a doubleheader against Oelwein.
New Hampton lost the first contest 2-1. Charles City plated their first run in the third inning on an RBI double by Colton Slinger. The other score the Chickasaws allocated was unearned.
Mason Cleveland scored the only New Hampton run after leading off the sixth inning with a double.
Keegan Kane started on the mound for the Chickasaws and tossed six innings, conceding eight hits, two runs (one earned) and striking out five. Max Babcock pitched the final inning without allowing a hit.
The Chickasaws bounced back in the nightcap, topping the Comets in comeback fashion.
Charles City led 3-0 after four innings. New Hampton answered with two runs in the fifth to make it 3-2. They added another run in the seventh, as with nobody on and two outs, Max Babcock blasted a solo home run to tie the game at three apiece.
Both teams would be held scoreless until the bottom of the tenth, when Brayden Anderson executed a suicide squeeze with one out that plated Babcock to win 4-3.
Babcock went 5-5 at the plate, accounting for half of the Chickasaws’ ten hits. He also pitched the final three and two-thirds innings without allowing a run. Babcock relieved starting pitcher Mason Cleveland. Cleveland hurled the first six and one-third innings and gave up three runs - two earned - and set nine Comet hitters down on strikes.
New Hampton finishes conference play at 14-4 and have now extended their streak of consecutive Northeast Iowa Conference baseball championships to five.