EG Heads Down the Homestretch

14-YEAR RUN IN WEST CENTRAL IN FINAL WEEKS

East Greene is headed down the home stretch of its 14-year run in the West Central Conference as the softball and baseball seasons enter their final weeks.

When the bats and gloves are hung up for the year, the Hawks will leave the West Central behind and begin competition this fall in the Rolling Hills Conference.

Coming on the heels of last year’s march to the State 1A Baseball Tournament, the Hawks had high hopes of winning the West Central baseball crown in their final year in the league. As last week got underway, the Hawks picked up a big win against Earlham, 5-3, in Rippey. That win came after a good showing at a tournament the Hawks hosted on Saturday. EG took on two Class 2A teams and came out with a split. EG opened the tournament with a 10-4 win over East Sac County but fell to Interstate 35 (Truro) in the championship game, 7-4. EG had the same experience at I-35’s tournament earlier this season, beating another “East” (East Union of Afton) in the first game but losing in the final to the Roadrunners.

The Earlham game was significant as the Cardinals were runner-up in last year’s WC race and one of the pre-season favorites to win the 2010 crown. The loss dropped Earlham to 4-4 in the conference while putting the Hawks at 5-2, just behind co-leaders Woodward-Granger and Des Moines Christian at 7-0 and Coon Rapids-Bayard at 6-1.

However, the Hawks fell 10-9 to Van Meter the following night, June 20, to drop to 5-3 in the league. Each of the three league losses was by just one run. EG took another hit on Thursday, falling to league co-leader Des Moines Christian in Urbandale, 4-1. The Hawks did bounce back to beat Iowa Christian, 4-2, in a big game the following night on the Blazers’ home field in Waukee. That moved the Hawks overall record to 12-6. Iowa Christian is the defending Rolling Hills champion and vying with Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira and Glidden-Ralston for this year’s title.

The win over ICA gives EG a good look at how it stacks up against RH teams as the Hawks have already beaten GR this season. EHKE leads the Rolling Hills with a perfect 9-0 mark. The Spartans, in their first year of shared baseball between EHK and Exira, are 18-0 overall and ranked 5th in Class 1A.

Rolling Hills Baseball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 9 – 0 18–0
Iowa Christian Academy 8 – 2 9–6
Glidden-Ralston 7 – 4 9–6
Walnut 5 – 5 11–10
CAM 1 – 6 2–10
Adair-Casey 1 – 6 3–11
Orient-Macksburg 1 – 9 4–12

EG got back on the winning track this week with a win Monday over Guthrie Center but fell to Coon Rapids-Bayard Tuesday night in Coon Rapids, 5-2. CRB started the week at 8-1 in the league and on Monday won both games of a doubleheader against Des Moines Christian, which had been unbeaten in the conference, to tie with Woodward-Granger for the league lead at 10-1 and drop DMC to third place at 9-2.

DMC fell again on Tuesday, losing at Earlham to fall further behind the co-leaders at 9-3 while Earlham improved to 8-4, good for fourth place, with EG at 6-5 for fifth. In a make-up game from a rainout earlier this season, Woodward-Granger beat Madrid, 9-0, to move back up on top of the league standings at 12-1, a half-game over Coon Rapids-Bayard. DMC disposed of West Central Valley, 12-2, in a game shortened by the 10-run rule after 5 innings, moving its mark to 10-3 and keeping the Lions in the league hunt. Elsewhere in the league, CRB downed Boyer Valley (Dunlap) in a non-conference game, moving its season record to 17-4, and Van Meter nearly scored the upset of the season, putting a real scare into Class 1A top-ranked and undefeated Martensdale-St. Mary’s, before falling 6-5.

West Central Baseball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Woodward-Granger 12–1 17–4
Coon Rapids-Bayard 11–1 17–5
Des Moines Christian 10–3 11–6
Earlham 8–4 12–8
East Greene 6–5 13–7
Van Meter 5–8 13–10
Panorama 5–8 6–11
Madrid 3–10 5–13
West Central Valley 2–11 4–16
Guthrie Center 1–12 3–18

Conference competition resumes tonight with EG hosting West Central Valley. In other key games Des Moines Christian hosts Woodward-Granger and CRB travels to Earlham for a doubleheader.

HAWKETTES GET BIG WINS OVER DMC, CRB

While the Hawks were getting their hats handed to them on the baseball fields at Des Moines Christian and Coon Rapids-Bayard, the Hawkettes notched big wins on their hosts’ softball diamonds.

EG left Urbandale with an 8-7 win over DMC last Thursday to pick up its second win in the conference. The Hawkettes are short in numbers this season with just 11 girls on the roster—leaving just two on the bench. But the team has made remarkable strides from the beginning of the season and has become a formidable competitor. Just two nights before beating DMC, which had been ranked as high as 14th in Class 1A, the Hawkettes nearly upset Van Meter before falling 5-4 to the [then] Class 2A 12th-ranked Bulldogs.

Earlier in the season, DMC had pummeled the Hawkettes 13-0 in 5 innings in Grand Junction just one night after Van Meter had rolled over EG 15-4, so the Hawkettes are clearly making big strides. And they play in a power-packed conference. Five of the 10 teams in the West Central have been ranked this season, and two are currently among the state’s leaders. Woodward-Granger (22-1) is ranked 4th in Class 1A (moving up from 5th last week) while Van Meter (20-6) is 13th in 2A. Earlham, last year’s West Central champion, went on to win the 2009 State 1A Championship and is competing in 2A this year. Des Moines Christian and Madrid have also been ranked in Class 1A.

Against DMC, the Hawkettes pounded out 8 hits with Malarie Gilley and Katlyn Gannon each going 2-4 with 2 RBIs and a double while Tia Lowe went 2-3 with 2 RBIs. Gilley was on the mound for EG and the Lions pounded her for 14 hits, including two home runs by shortstop Annette Bosman. Gilley struck out 3, walked 1 and hit one batter.

DMC’s offense was undone by its defense as the Lions logged 6 errors compared to EG’s 2. Leah Harris, daughter of DMC coach Howard Harris, took the loss, giving up 7 hits, striking out 7, and walking 2.

EG fell to Guthrie Center 5-1 on Monday night but came back the following night to get a big win over CRB in Coon Rapids in 8 innings, 6-4. EG pounded out 12 hits in the win and got big boost from 5 Crusader errors. The win gave EG the home-and-home sweep over CRB and moved them from 9th in the conference standings to 8th, dropping CRB down to the nine spot.

EG fell to Earlham 7-1 in Grand Junction in a makeup game last night but still remains a half-game ahead of CRB.

EG takes on West Central Valley, winless in 15 games in the conference, tonight in a home game that might be played as a doubleheader, since the two teams need to make up game rained out earlier this season. WCV is the last game on the EG schedule, but the Hawkettes still have a makeup game with Madrid.

WG clinched the title last night with a pounding of DMC, 14-2, in just 3 innings, and is now 16-0. Van Meter is in second at 13-3. Earlham moved into a tie for third place with Madrid and DMC at 10-5.

West Central Softball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Woodward-Granger 16–0 25–1
Van Meter 13–3 20–6
Des Moines Christian 10–5 10–9
Madrid 10–5 14–9
Earlham 10–5 15–12
Panorama 8–8 10–12
Guthrie Center 5–12 8–15
East Greene 3–12 4–13
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3–13 7–15
West Central Valley 0–15 2–18

East Greene opens Class 1A Regional Tournament action against Southeast Webster-Grand (10-12) next Wednesday night, July 7, in Ogden. The winner moves on to the quarterfinal round at Glidden on Friday against the winner of Wednesday night’s first round game between Glidden-Ralston (3-14) and Ar-We-Va (4-11). The winner at Glidden moves on to the semifinal round at Fonda on Monday, July 12. The other half of the Fonda semifinal bracket gets underway Wednesday with Aurelia taking on St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) in Fonda. Newell-Fonda, ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, gets a first-round bye and will meet the Aurelia-St. Mary’s winner in quarterfinal game in Fonda on Wednesday.

The Fonda semifinal winner will go up against Spencer semifinal winner in the Regional final at Manson on Wednesday, July 14.

Teams in the Spencer side of the bracket are Ruthven-Ayrshire, Clay Central-Everly, Graettinger-Terril, Harris-Lake Park, Twin River Valley, West Bend-Mallard, Laurens-Marathon and Alta. First and second round games will be played at Milford, Lake Park, Algona and Alta.

Glidden-Ralston is in its first year in the Rolling Hills Conference, after nearly winning the West Central Crown last year while racking up a 13-5 league mark, just behind conference champion Earlham at 15-3. The teams met in the regional semifinals with Earlham prevailing 5-1 and advancing on to win the regional and the State 1A tournament in Fort Dodge the following week, finishing the year at 33-8. GR, with a number of seniors, finished at 23-8, one of its best seasons in school history. This year’s squad is in a rebuilding year with many newcomers. The Wildcats got off to a good start with a 2-2 mark in the Rolling Hills, just behind leader EHKE (4-0) and CAM (2-1) but the team has struggled as of late, dropping to 2-7 and last place in the six-team conference.

EG beat the Wildcats in a non-conference game Friday, June 11, in Glidden, 7-2. EHKE has clinched the Rolling Hills title with 9-0 record and one conference game remaining with Adair-Casey (2-5). EHKE is 16-6 overall and opens regional play on Wednesday at Avoca against AHST. Conference foes CAM, Adair-Casey and Walnut area also in the same region, along with Coon Rapids-Bayard and Woodward-Granger from the West Central.

Rolling Hills Softball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 9 – 0 16–6
Walnut 5 – 4 7–14
Orient-Macksburg 4 – 4 6–13
CAM (Anita) 3 – 4 4–11
Adair-Casey 2 – 5 2–14
Glidden-Ralston 2 – 7 3–14

EYE ON GJ SAYS: EG and GR were moved “up north” in this year’s regional alignment. With Grand Junction and Glidden on Highway 30, which forms a line cutting through the middle of the state, EG and GR are the bottom border of a region that stretches all the way to the Minnesota state line. Harris is in Osceola County and Lake Park is in Dickinson County, as are Milford and Terril. Both counties border Minnesota, as does Kossuth County, where Algona is located.

The opening round will bring together East Greene and one of its longtime rivals, Southeast Webster-Grand. Before East Greene joined the West Central Conference in 1996-97, it was a member of the Coon River Valley Conference along with Southeast Webster, Paton-Churdan, Glidden-Ralston, Newell-Fonda, St. Mary’s (Storm Lake), Pomeroy-Palmer and Schaller-Crestland. Pomeroy-Palmer is now aligned with Pocahontas in sports, and Schaller-Crestland is aligned with Galva Holstein, playing as Ridge View.

East Greene and the three schools that make up Southeast Webster-Grand—Central Webster (Burnside), Dayton and Grand (Boxholm)—were charter members of the Little Central Conference that was formed in 1959-60 when East Greene, Grand and Central Webster were newly formed “community” school districts. Stratford and Churdan rounded out the 6-team league. EG and CW along with Paton-Churdan were also charter members of the first West Central Conference in 1966-67. This being the 50th anniversary of East Greene, it is interesting to note that EG will ends its girls’ athletic presence in the West Central with an old West Central and Little Central rival in the post-season.

Comparing the two, SWG has a better overall record and is the only 1A school in the Twin Lakes Conference. The other five are all 2A. SWG is currently in third place in the league at 5-3 with two games to go. Prairie Valley and East Sac are first and second. Prairie Valley was ranked 12th in Class 2A early in the season, but then fell out of the rankings.

EG plays the same number of 2A teams (5) that SWG does and in a much stronger league. EG also plays an 18-game league schedule while the Twin Lakes teams play just 10.

The Hawkettes have performed remarkably well with such a small group (11 players) in such a large conference—10 teams and half them in a higher classification. Plus, EG is the smallest of the five smaller schools.

Anything that can happen in these tournament games, so look for the Hawkettes to give the Eagles a tough time in the regional opener.

Look for the West Central overall to make a solid mark in the post-season. The five 1A schools are playing in four different regions. EG is in Region 2 (final at Manson) while Madrid is Region 3 (final at Fort Dodge). Des Moines Christian is in Region 6 (final at Pella) along with 8th-ranked Lynville-Sully. Woodward-Granger and Coon Rapids-Bayard are both in Region 8 (final at Atlantic) with each team opening the tournament at home. If both WG and CRB advance, they would play each other in a quarterfinal game in Woodward. Tenth-ranked Treynor is in the opposite side of the Region 8 bracket, so a possible WG-Treynor match-up is possible in the regional final.

In Class 2A, Earlham, Van Meter, Guthrie Center, Panorama and West Central Valley are all in Region 8 and all in the upper half of the bracket. In the opening round on Thursday, July 8, Earlham hosts Nodaway Valley (Greenfield) and West Central Valley travels to Interstate-35 (Truro). Those winners play Friday at Truro. Also on Thursday, Guthrie Center hosts Audubon and Van Meter hosts Panorama. The winners meet Friday at Van Meter. Van Meter is also the site of the Monday night semifinal match-up between Thursday’s winners. The final is on Wednesday in Creston. Van Meter is one of the favorites in the region along with I-35, ranked 10th, and Wayne (Corydon), ranked 8th. Corydon is the site of the first two rounds with the semifinal to be played in Mt. Ayr. Other teams on Wayne’s side of the bracket are
Clarinda, Red Oak, Griswold, Shenandoah, Clarke, Pleasantville and Central Decatur (Leon).