South Hamilton’s Zeke Balderas tossed a perfect game against South Hardin on Wednesday. Photo by Angela Hewitt

ELDORA — Throughout his prep baseball career, Zeke Balderas has always been at his best in the postseason. And now as a senior, as his journey nears its conclusion, he’s making sure that doesn’t change.

In other words, postseason Zeke is back.

Balderas closed up shop on the regular season Wednesday evening with a perfect game in South Hamilton’s 10-0, 6-inning breeze past South Hardin. He needed just 62 pitches, 45 of which were strikes, to mow down the Tigers and he finished with nine strikeouts.

“He had everything going and he didn’t miss his spots,” South Hamilton head coach Kyle Galetich said of Balderas. “They put the ball in play a little bit early, but probably starting in the third inning, that’s when he started to rack up the strikeouts.”

Balderas also went 2 for 2 with an RBI at the plate, part of a 12-hit outing for the Hawks (11-8), who are 3-0 with a scoring margin of 43-3 in the month of July. Cade Flaugh also laced two hits.

Cole Berg, Tycin Barkema and Lane Swenson all doubled for South Hamilton, while Brock Galetich, Cade Balvanz, Elijah Balderas, Ethan Young and Quinton Grove all smacked singles. Berg plated two runs; Balvanz, Barkema and Grove had one RBI each.

South Hardin (8-9) used five different pitchers.

South Hamilton will open up Class 2A District 11 play against either Roland-Story or Eagle Grove on Tuesday in Dike at 5 p.m. Galetich hopes his team’s recent hot streak carries over once again.

“The last two or three years, we’ve always played our best ball at the end of the year and we talked this week about getting that edge,” he said. “That’s what we’re building for and now it’s here, so we should be ready to go Tuesday night.”

S. Hamilton 10, S. Hardin 0 (6)

Wednesday at Eldora

S. Ham 002 224 — 10 12 0

S. Har 000 000 — 0 0 3

Zeke Balderas and Lane Swenson. Cade Spieker, Dante Dolash (3), Seth Lindaman (4), Kael Carr (5), Tyler Kendall (6) and John Walters, Thomas Spiehs (5). W — Z. Balderas. L — Spieker. Multiple hits — SHam: Z. Balderas, Cade Flaugh. 2B — SHam: Swenson, Cole Berg, Tycin Barkema. RBI — SHam: Berg (2), Z. Balderas, Barkema, Cade Balvanz, Quinton Grove.