ON TO STATE!!

EG Beats Grandview Park Baptist, 3-2

East Greene downed Grandview Park Baptist 3-2 in the substate championship in Ankeny tonight to secure its first-ever state baseball tournament berth.

The Hawks are one of eight teams to qualify for the Class 1A State Tournament which gets underway Friday at 6 p.m. at Principal Park in Des Moines. Seedings and pairings will be announced Wednesday after the completion of three substate finals around the state that were postponed tonight due to rain.

Other winners tonight in substate finals were Adair-Casey, Lenox, Alta and Kee (Lansing). Adair-Casey, a Rolling Hills Conference member, beat AHST (Avoca) 6-4, in Coon Rapids to advance to state.

Tomorrow night’s substate games are Newman (Mason City) at Garrigan (Algona), Notre Dame (Burlington) vs. Tri-County (Thornburgh) in Fairfield, and Calamus-Wheatland vs. New London in Lisbon.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This is the first trip to state for East Greene of Grand Junction, but not the first trip for Grand Junction, as the Bluejays were the State Fall Baseball Champions in 1939. This flock (of Hawks) is clearly flying high with the spirit of that '39 team which will mark the 70th anniversary of that championship this fall. The 1939 Bluejays played their baseball games on what was then the recently built Dutton Memorial Park field which is now the home of the East Greene Hawkettes softball team on the East Greene campus in the heart of Grand Junction. The historic Dutton Memorial Park grandstand is at the corner of Kelly and 14th Streets. The Hawks’ home baseball park in Rippey also has a deep history as it was the longtime home of the Rippey Merchants and Rippey Demons semipro teams and the Rippey High Bulldogs, and site of the Iowa State Summer High School Baseball Championship in 1953, 1959 and 1960 and the state high school Fall Baseball Championship in 1962. Go Hawks!