Baseball: Stalder snags second team, all-HOIC honor

By BRANDON HURLEY

Sports Editor
sports@beeherald.com

A late-season surge propelled Greene County’s Bryce Stalder to a prestigious honor.

The junior shortstop was named to the Heart of Iowa Conference second team last week, acknowledging his solid, two-way play.

Stalder led the Rams in batting with a .435 average, sky-rocketing up the charts over the final month of the season, which placed him sixth in the Heart of Iowa Conference. He also led the Rams with 30 total hits while his Greene County-best 11 doubles were fourth-most in the league.
Stalder also scored 22 times to go with a .567 slugging percentage and just 10 strikeouts in 69 at-bats. He committed just five errors as a shortstop, leading to a fielding percentage of .932.

The junior was one of Greene County’s best pitchers as well. He struck out the seventh-most batters in the HOIC this summer with 50 strikeouts to go with three wins and a 3.24  
Stalder went on a tear over the last month of the season, bumping his average from just a shade under .400 to where he finished the season, compiling quite the hitting streak.

Roland-Story’s Nolan Faber led the HOIC in hitting with a .523 average, in addition to the second-most hits (56), only behind West Marshall’s Kaden Davis (57). Davis was tops in the conference with 60 RBI while he was second with eight home runs. South Hamilton’s Carter Hewitt snagged the home run title, blasting nine long balls, while he was also first in slugging percentage at 0.962.

Faber also was tops in the HOIC with a 1.19 ERA to go with a staggering 108 strikeouts and 11 wins, all the top marks.

Roland-Story captured the outright team crown with an impressive 10-2 record, edging out newcomer West Marshall, who finished second at 9-3. South Hamilton came in third with a 8-4, the final of only three teams who finished over .500 in HOIC play. Greene County’s late hot streak propelled the Rams to a sixth place finish, coming in at 4-8. Saydel and PCM tied for fourth at 5-7, while Nevada finished last with just one win and 11 losses.