The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Tuesday afternoon baseball in Haxtun brought on a clash of two top-ranked teams in Colorado 1A baseball as the Bulldogs hosted the Rams from Akron for a Lower Platte League contest. Going into the double-header, both teams held top-three spots in State rankings; the Rams entering with just one blemish on their record. As the Bulldogs would have it, that all changed in Haxtun this week.

The Bulldogs took the field against the Rams in game one with senior Kaiden Schelling on the mound. Goose eggs remained on the board through the first three innings until Schelling crossed home plate in the bottom of the fourth. After a scoreless fifth inning, the Bulldogs added a solo run in the bottom of the sixth, again by Schelling, and closed out the top of the seventh for a 2-0 LPAA win over the top 1A ranking team, according to Colorado High School Activities Association rankings.

Junior Ryland Wolff went .667 at home plate. Schelling, senior Mason Bornhoft and sophomore Colin Cone each batted .500. Grant Statz earned a solo run-batted-in when he brought Schelling home in the bottom of the fourth. Statz and Wolff each registered one stolen base.

On the mound, Schelling faced 27 Ram batters. Of those, he struck out five. Sophomore Kanin Koberstein closed out the game, facing four batters.

Game two went differently, although the outcome remained the same. Akron struck first with a run in the first inning but the Bulldogs added two in the bottom of the first to take the advantage. Both teams traded leads and advantages, both at the plate and on the mound, with the Bulldogs taking the final 13-12 victory.

Madden Larsen and Ryan Davis both earned a 1.000 batting average in the second contest. Schelling went .750 at the plate and Bornhoft had a .500 average. Schelling led in RBIs with three. Davis, Bornhoft, Wolff, Statz, Kash Workman, Gage Helgoth and Larsen each registered a single RBI. Schelling and Larsen led in stolen bases, both with one.

Four Bulldogs saw time at the plate in the second match up. Cone, Davis, Larsen and Koberstein combined for the win. Larsen struck out three of 22 batters, Koberstein sat down one of 10 batters and Davis sat down one out of eight batters.

At the end of last week, the Bulldogs took a sweep in Wray to go 4-0 in baseball action recently. Currently, the Bulldogs hold a 12-4 record and sit third in Colorado 1A RPI standings as of Wednesday morning. Akron remains in the top spot followed by Flatirons Academy in second.

The rating performance index used by CHSAA to rank teams uses a formula of a team's overall record, winning percentage, opponents' winning percentage and opponents' opponents' winning percentage.

To round out the regular season schedule, the Bulldogs were set to travel to take on Caliche on Thursday. Watch next week's edition of the Herald for post-season updates.