BASEBALL

Hawks Fall to League Leaders

East Greene dropped games to two of the conference leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday, after wining three of its four previous games.

Earlham downed the Hawks 16-6 on Wednesday in Rippey, moving the Cardinals into a three-way tie for first place in the West Central at 13-4. The Hawks fell to 7-10 in the conference and 10-13 overall. EG came close to ending Panorama’s title hopes but fell to the Panthers 6-3 on Tuesday in Rippey. Panorama is also 13-4.

EG got the week off a good note with a 10-2 win over Glidden-Ralston. The previous Friday the Hawks blasted West Central Valley 15-1 in six innings. Heading into the WCV game the Hawks had lost a tight battle to Coon Rapids-Bayard, 6-4, on June 30 after winning 10-3 over Guthrie Center the previous night.

One of the Hawks’ biggest wins of the season came on Friday, June 26, when they downed Iowa Christian Academy 3-1. It was just the second loss of the season for ICA, champions of the Rolling Hills Conference at 11-1. ICA (16-2) has victories over West Central teams DMC and Van Meter this year. It’s only other loss was to RC opponent Walnut, which handed EG a 5-3 loss in the first round of the Hawks’ tournament in Rippey on June 20. EG lost the consolation game in the tourney to Class 2A Woodward-Granger, 11-8. East Sac, also a 2A school, won the championship beating Walnut 15-3.

Tyler Cooklin got the win against ICA giving up 10 hits, 4 walks and striking out 3. He had a big night at the plate too, going 2-3 with a single and a double.

EG heads to Madrid for its last conference game of the season tonight. EG will host the first two rounds of the Class 1A District Tournament in Rippey next week. EG faces Southeast Webster-Grand and Madrid takes on Glidden-Ralston on Tuesday, the winners of the those two games will meet on Thursday.

West Central Conference Standings
(Through Wed., July 8, Conf. and Reg. Season Records)
Des Moines Christian 13-4 17-8
Earlham 13-4 18-6
Panorama 13-4 15-4
Coon Rapids-Bayard 12-4 22-5
Van Meter 10-6 15-12
Madrid 9-8 13-11
East Greene 7-10 10-13
West Central Valley 5-12 6-19
Glidden-Ralston 2-15 4-19
Guthrie Center 0-17 1-23

EYE ON GJ SAYS: That was a big win for the Hawks over ICA and shows their potential. The team has just three seniors and its top two pitchers are sophomores, so next year looks promising. As for this year, EG has a chance to make a good showing on its home diamond in the district tourney next week, and tonight’s game at Madrid will show how both teams look heading into the tournament.

The conference race is very tight--as expected. Last year five teams (EG among them) were fighting for the conference crown and it went down to the last night, leaving four teams tied for the crown. It’s pretty much the same this year as DMC, Earlham and Panorama are knotted up at 13-4 and Coon Rapids-Bayard is right behind them at 12-4. Panorama takes on Earlham in Panora tonight so the loser of that game will be eliminated,

It was a five-team race as the week began, but thumpings at the hands of Earlham (14-1 in 5 innings) and CRB (12-2 in 5 innings) dropped Van Meter to 10-6 and out of the league chase. The Bulldogs can play the spoiler though, as they travel to Urbandale to take on Des Moines Christian tonight and host CRB tomorrow night (Friday) in Van Meter. Earlham is going for a league-sweep as the Lady Cardinals won the WC softball crown on Monday.