Wolverine baseball squad looked to string positives together going into playoffs

The Nodaway Valley/O-M Wolverines have recently hit a challenging spell, however they are remaining positive, knowing one hit or one good inning can change everything in the game of baseball.

Recent action shows the Wolverines losing 15-5 to Mount Ayr June 23, 13-3 to Lenox June 22 and 8-3 at Grand View Christian June 21. On June 20, the Wolverines lost 12-2 to Central Decatur.

This all follows a tight game recently at East Union that Wolverines were glad to come out on top in.

“All the teams we played this week are pretty respectable,” said NV/OM head coach Dan Jameson. “We kind of get in our own way sometimes. We’ll make some mistakes in the field and that doesn’t help with how we go re-attack everything. It makes it tough. You’ve gotta overcome more on the offensive side, and that makes it hard. We’ve had games where we’ve had good action and couldn’t come through in those situations.”

NV/OM hasn’t gone without individual successes lately.

Keyin Steeve went 2-for-2 with a single, a double and an RBI against Mount Ayr. In the same game, Jase Davidson was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs driven in. Tyson Ross had a double and an RBI in that contest.

Dawson Nelson, out for baseball this year for the first time in a long time, went 3-for-3 against Lenox. Davidson doubled, driving in a run. Tyson Ross and Boston DeVault also doubled.

Davidson had a highlight game against GVC, going 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and two RBI. He threw all six innings, while Ross, DeVault and Steeve each singled.

Paul Berg was 2-for-2 with a double and a run scored against Central Decatur.

“For the most part, the outfield play has been solid,” Jameson said. “We’ve had a variety of guys out there, but Tyson’s been our stalwart. He believes he can get any ball around him, which is awesome. Dawson’s been holding his own, and Aidan [Kuster] and Nathaniel [Blazek] in right field, we’re getting things figured out there. We’ve just gotta keep pounding away, keep progressing and developing.”

NV/OM learned its district tournament assignment this week and will play Chariton 5 p.m. Saturday, July 1 at Interstate 35 (Truro) to open Class 2A, District 11 play. The winner faces top seed Van Meter in the next round, which is July 5.

The Wolverines entered this week 6-14 overall and 6-6 in conference play. On the docket to close the regular season was a trip to Underwood Monday, June 26 and a home game Tuesday against Winterset.

“Underwood’s going to be tougher than nails, but you never know. We beat them a couple of years ago with Mason Mather on the mound. Winterset looks like they’re down but they beat a Knoxville team the other night that’s been solid all year,” Jameson said. “We’ve just gotta come out and get some positives.”