Hawks Fall In Substate

LAST INNING RALLY FALLS SHORT, LOSE 3-2

It couldn’t have been much closer. East Greene had just cut a 3-1 deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the last inning in the substate finals at Denison on July 20. A return trip to the State 1A Baseball Tournament seemed very, very possible.

Yet the rally was short-lived. With two outs and a runner on first, senior slugger Tom Beger was at the plate, poised to score the tying and go-ahead runs. Hopes were high for EG boosters, but then quickly dashed. Beger hit a flyball to the outfield and the game was over. The Ar-We-Va Rockets were doing the celebrating for their first-ever trip the state finals.

Ar-We-Va moved on with a 13-13 record and became the surprise team of the 2010 1A field, much like East Greene had been last year with a 14-14 record. EG ended the season with a 19-12 mark and its second consecutive district championship.

The Hawks got on the board first, scoring a run in the bottom of the second inning. Wes Onken hit an infield single to lead off the inning and Jessie Priest walked. Josh Neese then lined a single to the outfield to load the bases. Zach Dearborn grounded out, allowing Onken to tag up and head home.

The Hawks still had two runners on base with just one out, but Ar-We-Va pitcher Neil Liechti struck out Alex Gordon and Tory Beger to end the threat.

The Hawks’ lead held up until the top of the fourth when Derrick Cornelius walked and was driven home on a single by Liechti to tie the game at 1-1. Liechti advanced home on a bloop single by Matt Dalton, putting the Rockets up 2-1.

The Hawks threatened in bottom of the fifth when Dearborn singled and Gordon advanced him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Four consecutive balls sent Tory Beger to first, and the fourth pitch got by the catcher, advancing Dearborn to third. With Tom Beger up, AWV coach Phil Snyder made a pitching change. Liechti and catcher Ryan Schurke switched places.

Schurke snuffed out the EG rally when Tory Beger was thrown out while leading off at first and Tom Beger grounded out to second.

Heading into the seventh, EG pitcher Tyler Cooklin had already struck out nine batters, but the Hawks bats just were not humming as they had in big wins over Coon Rapids-Bayard and Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira in the district tournament. And the Rockets really put the pressure on in their half of the inning—sensing a victory and a trip later in the week to Principal Park, site of the four-class state tournament.

A throwing error by Tom Beger on a shot up the middle by Dalton pulled first baseman Dearborn off base, putting Dalton on. A wild pitch by Cooklin got by catcher Tory Beger, allowing Dalton to get to second. Jacob Kraus then hit a single to left field, advancing Dalton to third and still no outs.

EG coach Dana Fink called a meeting at the mound, but he left Cooklin in the game. The situation looked really dire when Quentin Thomsen hit a bloop single to centerfield which allowed Dalton to score, although a throw from center fielder Aaron Lyons to Tory Beger almost got him out at the plate. The next batter popped up for the first out, and then Cooklin struck out Elliott Koch and Ross Pawletzki was out on an infield blooper to send the Hawks back to the plate for a much-hoped comeback.

Neese opened the bottom of the inning by striking out, but then Dearborn hit a chopper to third that was overthrown at first, giving the Hawks some hope. Alex Gordon walked putting runners on first and second. Reed Ostrander hit into a force-out to second giving the Hawks their second out but that allowed Dearborn to head home from second, which cut the Ar-We-Va lead to 3-2. The Hawks had generated some momentum, but Thomsen squelched the rally and gave the Rockets the win when he snagged Tom Beger’s fly ball to right field.

It was the errors that did the Hawks in, as all else was even and the Hawks had the better pitching. Liechti and Schurke gave up 5 hits, walked 2 and struck out 4, while Cooklin gave up 5 hits, walked 2, and struck out 10. But the Rockets had just 1 error and Hawks had 3, plus Ar-We-Va had 2 stolen bases to none for EG. “Too many errors and mental mistakes,” said EG coach Dana Fink after the loss.

Wes Onken led the EG hitting brigade, going 2 for 3 and scoring a run; Neese was 1-3 with a single; Dearborn was 1-3 and a run; and Tom Beger was 1-4 with a single. Ar-We-Va had two stolen bases to none for the Hawks.

AWV 000 200 1 3 5 1
EGR 010 000 1 2 5 3

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This was another terrific season for the Hawks. Sure, it ended on a disappointing note. That 20th win of the season and another trip to Principal Park were right there after EG beat undefeated and No. 4 ranked EHK/Exira in the district finals, but Ar-We-Va was the team that played like a champion and earned the right to advance to the 1A State Tournament.

As it was, the Rockets were somewhat embarrassed in the opening round by eventual champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s, 16-0, in a game shortened to 5 innings by the 10-run rule. MSt.M, seeded second at state, rolled on with victories over Preston, 10-2, in the semifinals and St. Mary’s (Remsen), 3-0, in the championship game—winning the title with a perfect 43-0 record.

St. Mary’s advanced to the title game with an exciting 9-8 win over top-seed and defending champion Newman (Mason City) in the semifinals. Newman sidelined East Greene in the opening round of last year’s tournament on its march to the 2009 championship.

Newman was the only team from last year’s tourney qualifiers to make it back to the state tourney, and Newman and EG were the only two teams from the eight-team field to make it to the substate.

Other highlights of the season included the third straight win over neighbor and rival Jefferson-Scranton, a Class 3A school. The Hawks dispensed with the Rams 6-0 in the first week of the season. EG was runner-up in both the I-35 and EG baseball tourneys with both losses coming in the championship game to I-35, a 2A team that made it to state both this year and last year and battled conference foe Martensdale-St. Mary’s for league honors in the Pride of Iowa Conference.

The Pride of Iowa actually had three teams in the state tourney field as Southeast Warren (Liberty Center) qualified in Class 1A after beating Orient-Macksburg, 8-3, in the Substate 6 championship played at Dowling High School in West Des Moines. SEW finished its season at 16-11. In Class 2A, Solon dropped I-35 in the first round, 4-0. I-35 finished the season at 19-7 while Solon rolled on to the 2A championship with a 41-2 mark.

Ar-We-Va was the surprise team of the 1A state field but Orient-Macksburg was the big news in the district and substate round. While EHKE was winning by big margins on its way to an undefeated season and taking the Rolling Hills Conference crown with a perfect 12-0 record, OM finished last in the RH with a 2-10 mark. Heading into district play the Bulldogs were just 6-14 but they drubbed Mormon Trail (Garden Grove) 15-0 in 4 innings in the first round and beat Murray 2-1 on Murray’s home diamond in the semifinals to advance to the District 6 championship game at Bedford against Bedford, which had sidelined Lenox, a team that had advanced to state last year.

OM got the win over Bedford 7-6 to move on to the substate against Southeast Warren. The loss there ended the Bulldog’s season at 9-15.

In addition to EG, Lenox and Newman, other teams in the 2009 1A field were Tri-County (Thornburgh), Alta, Calamus-Wheatland, Kee (Lansing) and Adair-Casey, also a member of the Rolling Hills. AC and Tri-County lost in the first round of districts; Calamus-Wheatland went down in the semifinal round; and Kee lost in the district championship. Alta aligned with Aurelia this season and moved up to Class 2A and was beaten in the district semifinal round.

BEATING CRB: The big win over EHKE in the district championship was major, but more satisfying was finally getting by rival CRB in the semifinals, especially as wins over the Crusaders have been few and far between over the years.

CRB had been celebrating the 500th career win (all at CRB) of veteran Crusader coach John Waddle a few weeks before meeting the Hawks in the district face-off in Coon Rapids. CRB had just drubbed the Hawks 17-6 the week before districts in the second of their two conference match-ups, so it seemed likely that CRB and EHKE would be the teams advancing to the championship. But the intrepid Hawks had other ideas.

It must be getting frustrating for CRB fans. Since 2001, they have finished first or second in the West Central Conference with the exception of a fourth-place showing in 2003, but have not advanced out of the substate but once since then. The Crusaders bowed out in the semifinal round the last two years in the districts, and in 2008 they fell in the district finals. And all these games were played in Coon Rapids.

The Crusaders were conference co-champs this season (with Woodward-Granger) and in 2008 (a four-way tie with Des Moines Christian, Panorama and Van Meter). Last year the Crusaders were runners-up to co-champs DMC and Panorama. Of course, the fact that the last three West Central titles have ended in ties attests to how competitive the league is and how solid CRB plays against the other schools, a good half which are 2A schools. CRB did make it to state in 2007 and 2001, along with a trip in 1995.

From 1966 to 1983, Coon Rapids only had two winning seasons in baseball. The turnaround came in 1984 when Coon Rapids secured the first of three straight conference championships with a 12-2 mark and finished 15-6 overall, pretty impressive considering the Crusaders had finished a combined 4-33 in the previous two seasons. The next year, officially aligned with Bayard (some years in the early 1980s the two schools shared summer sports), Coon Rapids-Bayard finished 19-5, went undefeated in conference play, and won the district tournament but lost in the substate game. Since then, CRB has won seven more district titles and the three substate wins that put them in the state tournament.

Of course, in the glass half-full/half-empty perspective, the Crusaders have advanced to substate eight times but won just three of those contests. In a “tale of two cities” reality (or in this case, high school baseball teams) in the last decade, East Greene finished in the lower half of the original eight-team West Central in 2001 while CRB won the title along with district and substate crowns. In the following years, the disparity between CRB and EG finishes in the conference went like this, with CRB listed first/EG second: 1st/4th, 4th/5th, 1st/7th, 1st/4th, 2nd/7th, 2nd/7th, 1st/5th, 2nd/7th, and this year, 1st/5th. In 2003, when the Hawks were just behind CRB in fifth, they did get the upper hand in the district tournament in Coon Rapids, beating CRB in the semifinal round 8-4 but falling to Adair-Casey 4-2 in the finals.

Overall, Waddle has coached CRB to 24 winning seasons, 11 conference championships and the three state tourney appearances, and 34 of his players have earned all-state honors. He was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame earlier this season.

So, any victory over CRB is worth savoring.

LOOKING AHEAD: EG loses four key players off this year’s squad but has a very solid nucleus returning next year, including all three of its top pitchers: Tyler Cooklin, Wes Onken and Reed Ostrander, along with veteran outfielder Aaron Lyons, catcher Tory Beger, and infielders Alex Gordon and Zach Dearborn, and a number of key reserves.

The Ar-We-Va substate game was the last appearance in an EG uniform for Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Josh Neese and Jessie Priest. Each of the four graduated seniors were standouts in football, basketball and baseball with Priest, Neese and Beyerink also participating in golf. Beger is headed to Simpson College this fall while Beyerink and Priest are headed to UNI, where Priest plans to major in business.

Priest and Beyerink were also members of East Greene’s championship team in the West Central Conference Academic Brain Bowl this past spring.

The four were the core of the EG infield this year, as Priest played right field and first base, Beyerink was at second base, Beger at shortstop and Neese at third.

The Hawks—-who finished fifth among 10 teams—-were not given much consideration by the league coaches when it came to all-conference picks this season, as post-season honors went only to Onken, a second-team pick, and Lyons and Priest, both named honorable mention. EG had just one player named to the first and second teams, while Earlham, which was just one game ahead of EG in the standings had one on the first team and three on the second, and Van Meter, which finished behind EG in sixth place, had two on the first team and two on the second.

Panorama, which finished seventh, managed to get a player named to each of the first and second teams, and West Central Valley, which won only 4 of 18 conference games, also had a player on the first team. Each team gets two players named honorable mention so the final tally for the teams behind EG in the standings: VM 4, Panorama 4, and WCV 3, compared with EG’s 3, and no first-team honorees for the Hawks.

One of the posters on the Iowa Preps message boards in baseball noted that since East Greene was leaving the West Central, it was snubbed by the coaches in the all-conference selections. Clearly. And the coaches and administrators yammer on about sportsmanship and fairness, and then you see something like this happen.

The Hawks got the last laugh by being the only team in the West Central to win its district in either 1A or 2A as all the others fell by the wayside in the first two rounds and only Woodward-Granger made it to the district championship game, which it lost. All the 2A teams lost in the first round with the exception of Earlham, which advanced only because it beat at another conference team, last-place Guthrie Center. Earlham then lost to Audubon in the next round.

The coaches in the 1A Central District were far more respectful to the Hawks as they voted Onken and Neese to the all-district first team and Cooklin to the all-district second team. Also named to the all-district Central team from the West Central Conference were Ryan Shumaker and Jack Manning, WG; Colin Frye and Josh Arment, DMC; and C.J. Manthe, Madrid. Second team honorees were Luke Finley and Ben McIntosh, DMC, and Lucas Geneser, WG. In the 1A Southwest District, Jacob Esdohr was named to the first team along with two players from EHK/Exira and four from state champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s. Tyler Boeke and Jay Carstens of CRB were named to the second team along with two from MSt.M.

While the five 1A schools had eight players earn all-district honors, only one player was so honored among the conference’s five 2A teams, as J.C. Watts of Panorama was named all-district on the 2A Southwest first team. Ben Fisher and Trenton Marks of Van Meter named to the second team along with Cole Kearns of West Central Valley. Comparatively, the 1A teams had seven players with second team honors.

It looks even more spurious to see Neese—a senior—named first-team all-district when he could not even get an honorable mention in the conference. And last year, both Beger and Cooklin got honorable mention nods (along with second-team honors for two EG seniors, Jesse Luther and Brad Clark) when the Hawks finished seventh, but the team moves up to fifth this season and gets a measly three all-league picks. It would seem reasonable that a senior like Beger would get some kind of recognition by the all-league voters (coaches).

The Hawks will be a clear contender in the title chase next summer in the Rolling Hills, with both Onken (6-2) and Cooklin (6-5) returning on the mound along with Ostrander, Lyons, Gordon, Dearborn and Tory Beger. EHKE had almost its entire starting lineup receive all-conference honors as eight players were named first team, second team and honorable mention.

EHKE loses its entire pitching staff (Carson Smith 11-1, Travis Stevens 8-0, and Nolan Himmelberg 6-0—all seniors) along with outfielder Devin Lickteig. All four were unanimously voted to the first team as was Walnut senior Cole Becerra, an outfielder. Smith and Himmelberg were named 1A Southwest first-team all-district while Stevens was voted to the second team.

Back for the Spartans next year are second-team all-RHC picks Ryon Rasmussen, a junior outfielder; Dayton Rasmussen, a sophomore infielder; and Beck Benton, a freshman catcher. Tony Santisteban, a junior honorable mention pick at utility/infielder, also returns. So, clearly, EHKE will be solid.

EHKE and Iowa Christian Academy (11-8) were the only Rolling Hills teams to finish with winning records while Glidden-Ralston had one of its better seasons in many years, reaching the .500 mark at 10-10. Those were the top three teams in the RH with Walnut (12-13) fourth. Adair-Casey went from conference runner-up and 1A state tournament finalist in 2009 to fifth place, finishing at 8-15 overall. CAM (Anita) ended the season at 4-15 and finished just ahead of Orient-Macksburg.

Orient-Macksburg could be a very strong team next season, building on its post-season success this year. It graduates three key seniors, which handled much of the pitching, but returns Nick Ray, a utility/infielder with a 2-3 pitching record. The three seniors were OM’s only all-league picks, but the voting was conducted before the Bulldogs’ tournament run, so OM’s younger players certainly stepped it up at the end of the season, which shows good coaching, team motivation and perseverance.

Iowa Christian won the league in 2009 and they will be looking to return to the top in 2011. The Blazers return two key all-league first-teamers: Nick Schroeder and Colton Barton (an all-district Central second-team pick in 2009), along with two second team picks and two named honorable mentions. GR returns first-team pick Zack Rohrbeck and HM honoree Wade Hoyle.

East Greene went 3-0 against the Rolling Hills this season, beating each of the top three teams: GR 13-7 early in the season; Iowa Christian 4-2 in late June; and EHKE 8-3 in the District 15 championship game.

Rolling Hills Final Conference & Season Records
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12–0, 22–1
Iowa Christian Academy 9–3, 11–8
Glidden-Ralston 7–5, 10–10
Walnut 5–7, 12–13
Adair-Casey 4–8, 8–15
CAM 3–9, 4–15
Orient-Macksburg 2–10, 9–15

West Central Final Conference & Season Records
West Central Final Season Records
Woodward-Granger 17–1, 24–5
Coon Rapids-Bayard 17–1, 26–7
Des Moines Christian 13–5, 15–10
Earlham 9–8, 14–14
East Greene 8–9, 19–12
Van Meter 8–10, 16–14
Panorama 7–11, 8–15
West Central Valley 4–14, 7–20
Madrid 3–15, 5–19
Guthrie Center 3–15, 5–22