EG Wins District Opener

HAWKS DOWN SWG; CRB IS UP NEXT

East Greene upended Southeast Webster-Grand 4-1 in Coon Rapids last night in district tourney first-round action. The Hawks advance to the semifinal round where they will face Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Hawks had 9 hits in picking up the win, moving their season record to 17-11. SWG ended the year at 0-25.

CRB beat Glidden-Ralston 13-4 in the second half of a twin bill in Coon Rapids last night. CRB broke open a tight 3-2 game with six runs in the fourth inning. The Crusaders added four more runs in the sixth to secure the win. Tyler Boeke got the win for CRB, moving his record to 8-0 with Gage Reis pitching the last inning in relief.

CRB, co-champs of the West Central Conference, improved to 24-7. GR bowed out at 10-10.

In the other side of the District 12 bracket, Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, the No. 4 ranked team in Class 1A, moved its season mark to 26-0 with a 9-0 win over Adair-Casey, which made it to the state tournament last year. EHKE’s Carson Smith struck out 17 Bomber batters and gave up just 3 hits in the shutout win, which moved his season record to 11-0. It was the Spartans fourth win this season over AC, which ended the year 8-16. AC finished fifth in the seven-team Rolling Hills Conference with a 4-8 record.

EHKE will be going for its third win against CAM (Anita) in its semifinal matchup in Adair tomorrow night. The Spartans downed CAM 14-5 and 14-3 in Rolling Hills action, the second win coming last Friday in Anita. CAM finished in sixth place in the league at 3-9. The Cougars received a bye in the first round. They head into the EHKE game with a 4-14 overall season mark.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: It was last year in the semifinal round at Coon Rapids that AC soundly beat the Crusaders 8-3 to move on the district and substate championship games, where they downed Walnut 9-1 and AHST (Avoca) 6-4. CRB was hosting the first round, semifinal and final games in the district, and hosting the substate game, so with a glossy 24-6 record and having just been edged out for the league title in the West Central (tying with Earlham at 13-5 for runner-up spot with Des Moines Christian and Panorama winning the title at just one game ahead, 14-4), the Crusaders looked to be the solid favorite, although AC was 17-4 heading into that game and had finished second in the RH to Iowa Christian.

Hopefully, the Hawks can pull the same “home diamond surprise” on CRB this year. CRB has already downed the Hawks twice in their run to the league co-championship. The first win was in Coon Rapids on June 29, 5-2, with the Hawks’ Tyler Cooklin taking the loss on the mound, despite giving up just one hit and striking out 10 batters. The Hawks were hampered by Cooklin walking 8 batters and the defense committing 5 errors. Freshman Reed Ostrander and seniors Nathan Beyerink and Jessie Priest shared mound duties in the 17-6 pounding suffered by EG at home last Friday, which was ended by the 10-rule after six innings. Ostrander pitched four innings and Priest and Beyerink, primarily outfielders, pitched an inning each in relief. Combined, they gave up 10 hits, 11 walks and hit 4 batters while striking out 3.

The Hawks did rack up 7 hits in the game against CRB hurler Boeke and the defense showed improvement from June 29 game with just 2 errors. Boeke struck out 8 Hawks but walked 8, yet his teammates played error-free ball to back him up.

Hopefully the Hawks can catch the Crusaders looking past EG—a team they’ve beaten twice—to unbeaten and highly-ranked EHKE, which looks to be the likely opponent in the district final. Perhaps the earlier victories over EG and the home field advantage on Thursday and again on Saturday in the final will give them a slight bit of over-confidence.

The Hawks will need to reach deep and remember they moved on in the semifinal round last year with a win over Madrid that propelled them to wins in the final over GMG (Garwin) in Ames and then Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines) in the substate game in Ankeny. That team started the tourney trail at 10-14 while this year’s squad racked up a higher finish in a tougher West Central as GR (3-15 in the league last year) was replaced by Woodward-Granger, the 2009 champion of Heart of Iowa-Small Conference that racked up a 20-9 overall record. WG beat EG by just one run in each of the two Hawks vs. Hawks showdowns this year in the conference. And this year’s team entered the post-season with 16 wins against 11 losses and moved up from seventh to fifth in a more competitive West Central.