EG Sports: Summer of Transition

GREENE COUNY WINS CONFERENCE IN SOFTBALL
 

The Greene County softball team ended its first-ever season with a conference championship while the two area boys baseball teams laid the groundwork for a combined team next season.

 
The softball team comprised of girls from East Greene, Paton-Churdan and Jefferson-Scranton rolled to a 13-3 mark in the Heart of Iowa Conference to share the league crown with Prairie City-Monroe. The team was locked into a tight run to the crown. The Rams took the lead early in the season ahead of Gilbert and Prairie City-Monroe. During the last week of the season, Greene County fell into a tie and then briefly into second place, but the Rams beat Gilbert in a doubleheader and followed the next day with a win over Prairie City-Monroe that moved them one game ahead of PCM. GC lost to Roland-Story the following night in the regular and conference season finale to end the season tied at 13-3 with PCM for the HOIC crown.
 
Post-season play opened in a very tough region with three ranked teams among the eight-team field—No. 9 Ballard (Huxley), No. 11 MOC-Floyd Valley and No. 14 OA-BCIG—along with the HOIC co-champions and Twin Lakes Conference runner-up (East Sac). Greene County (25-7) traveled to Wall Lake to face East Sac (15-8) in a first-round game. The Rams won 10-4 to move on to the semifinal round against Ballard on the Bombers’ home field in Huxley. Ballard ended the Rams’ season in a 3-0 win. Ballard (33-9) went on to win the region and qualify for state. The Bombers beat Mid-Prairie (Wellman) 5-4 in the first round and Bondurant-Farrar 1-0 to move on to tomorrow’s championship game.
 
East Greene and Jefferson-Scranton/Paton-Churdan completed their last seasons as independent baseball and sports teams. Just as the girls teams of East Greene and Jefferson-Scranton combined girls sports this summer, the two schools will combine all sports beginning at the start of 2012-13 school year. Paton-Churdan will compete individually in volleyball, girls and boys basketball, and girls and boys track. The current sharing agreement between Paton-Churdan and Jefferson-Scranton in football, wrestling, baseball and softball will continue with the new Greene County teams formed by the sport sharing between JS and EG. But PC will no longer get a separate “slash designation” as in JS/PC. The teams will go by Greene County in all sports just as they did this summer in softball.
 
The Hawks struggled early in the year, but played some of their best ball in the latter stages of the season. EG had graduated a number of all-district and all-conference players from a 2011 team that won the district crown and advanced to the substate. It had been the Hawk’s third straight district title with the 2009 team winning the substate and moving on the state tournament. This year’s team was very young with no seniors on the roster and several eighth graders in the starting lineup. The Hawks broke a 15-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over Iowa Christian, and from then on played .500 ball.
 
EG split with longtime league rival Glidden-Ralston during the season, losing the first game in Glidden in mid-June 3-0 but winning in Rippey on July 2, 11-8. The teams faced each other again in the first round of the district tournament at Coon Rapids with EG winning 7-4 to take the best-of-three series from the Wildcats. EG then went on to face Coon Rapids-Bayard, a team that qualified for state last season, in the quarterfinal round. The Crusaders dominated the Hawks, 10-0, in a game shortened to 5 innings by the 10-run rule.
 
EG ended the season at 6-23. The regular season win over GR moved them up to 4-10 in the league to tie for sixth place with Adair-Casey. The loss dropped GR to 3-11 and left them in the league cellar.
 
Jefferson-Scranton/Paton-Churdan also dwelled in the lower echelon of its conference. The Rams ended Heart of Iowa play at 4-12—tied with South Hamilton for seventh place in the nine-team league, just ahead of last-place CMB (Maxwell). Overall, the Rams finished the season at 11-20, an improvement over the 9 wins of 2011.
 
North Polk won the league with a perfect 15-0 record and went on to win district and substate titles in Class 2A. North Polk (29-4) has been highly ranked all season, finishing the regular season as the No. 3 team in the state. The Comets are seeded third in the state tournament which opens tomorrow night with the Class 2A teams taking the field first among the four classes. North Polk meets sixth-seeded Forest City (21-8) at 8 p.m. in Principal Park in Des Moines. The other three classes begin play next week.
 
Ogden has also advanced to the state 2A tournament, beating Prairie City-Monroe 6-5 in the substate Tuesday night in West Des Moines. The Bulldogs had opened district play in Ogden on Tuesday, July 10, with a 10-0 win in 5 innings over Woodward Academy in the semifinal round. Woodward Academy and JSPC faced off in the first round at Ogden on Saturday, July 7. Woodward Academy had finished 3-17 in the 11-team West Central Conference comprised of 1A and 2A teams while JSPC had competed in the mostly larger 2A (and one 3A) Heart of Iowa league. Woodward Academy got the win over the Rams, 5-3, and moved on to face Ogden.
 
West Central Valley (Stuart) squeezed by Panorama 4-3 in 10 innings in the first round at Ogden with the winner advancing to face Gilbert in the semifinals. Gilbert and Ogden had drawn byes in the six-team field. Gilbert pummeled WCV 17-0 in a game shortened to just 4 innings by the 15-run rule.
 
Ogden and Gilbert faced off on Saturday, July 14, in the district final at Ogden. The Bulldogs won 4-2 and advanced to the substate. Prairie City-Monroe advanced from the district at Pella Christian and looked to be the favorite after battling North Polk for the HOI league lead all season and spending a number weeks in the Class 2A state rankings. Ogden, however, was a formidable force in the very competitive West Central Conference, tying with Coon Rapids-Bayard at 15-5 for third place, just behind league champion Van Meter (17-3) and runner-up Des Moines Christian (16-4). The Bulldogs had been ranked in the Class 2A Top Ten in the first few weeks of the season.
 
EYE  ON GJ SAYS: The Greene County softball program is taking shape to be among the better teams in central Iowa. Last year as Jefferson-Scranton, the team was just one win away from the state tournament, losing in the district finals to Estherville-Lincoln Central. This year’s combined JS/PC and EG squad—the first ever high school team to play as Greene County—started strong and kept up the intensity throughout the season. Along with the conference co-championship, the Rams were also champions of the South Hamilton tournament.
 
East Greene had great representation on the Greene County team with 5 players among the 17-members of the varsity who saw action this season. Freshman Hannah Onken was the starting first baseman and freshman Bailey Godwin saw considerable action. Sophomores Shelby Cooklin and Emily Jacobsen and 8^th grader Hannah Cooklin also played key roles for the Ram varsity and got considerable experience playing on the junior varsity team. The varsity was comprised of five girls from EG, one from PC and 11 from Jefferson-Scranton. A number of EG girls played key roles on the Greene County middle school team, among them 8^th grader Emily Most and 7^th grader Taylor Wessling.
 
Greene County graduates just one player—right fielder Elizabeth Carman—from this year’s varsity squad.
 
In baseball action, the Hawks fielded a very young team with no seniors while Jefferson-Scranton/Paton-Churdan had eight seniors among its 16 varsity team members. Rounding out the JS/PC roster were four juniors, one sophomore and three freshmen. EG juniors Tory Beger, Reed Ostrander and Alex Gordon will form a solid nucleus with the four returning JS/PC juniors for next year’s Greene County squad. Look for key roles form EG’s returning sophomores Wes Tipton, T.J. Lint, Zach Fouch and Jacob Vreugdenhil. Five eighth graders—Max Neese, Tyler Beger, Ben Lint, Lance Ross and Matthew Gordon also saw considerable action for the Hawks. They, along with junior Dakota Hoffman, sophomore Joe Pena and 8^th grader Brandon Dudley, will be making big contributions to the Greene County Rams team next season.
 
AREA TEAMS MAKE STATE: Along with Ogden making the Class 2A state baseball tourney field, Earlham made the field in Class 1A. The Cardinals (21-10) finished fifth in the tough West Central Conference with a 12-8 record. They got by conference champion and No. 9 Van Meter, 3-2, in the district finals and then beat Coon Rapids-Bayard in a 2-0 thriller in 11 innings Tuesday night in the substate at Adel. CRB had advanced to the substate with a 7-2 win over EHK/Exira, champions of the Rolling Hills Conference, in the district final at Coon Rapids. CRB was looking to make a return trip to the state tourney.
 
Earlham, seeded seventh, takes on No. 2 seed Newman Catholic of Mason City (33-4) in the opening round of the Class 1A state tournament on Monday. Bishop Garrigan of Algona (36-8) is seeded first with two-time defending champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s (37-5) seeded fourth.

Kuemper (Carroll), a longtime Class 2A rival of Jefferson-Scranton, also made it to the 2A state tourney, downing Clarinda 8-3. The Knights (26-11) are seeded fourth and take on Ogden, seeded fifth, at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Principal Park. The winner will become the unofficial “Class 2A champion of West Central Iowa” and advance to the semifinal round next Thursday in Des Moines against the winner of top-seeded Beckman (Dyersville) and eighth-seeded West Branch.

 
The West Central Conference is having a great showing at state this summer with two teams in the baseball tournament (Ogden in 2A, Earlham in 1A) and three teams in the softball tournament at Fort Dodge. The Earlham girls, league champions and ranked second in the state, qualified in Class 1A. Des Moines Christian and Van Meter made the field in Class 2A. Earlham (35-4) beat Marquette Catholic 8-0 in the first round and this afternoon sidelined Don Bosco (Gilbertville) 3-0 to advance to the state championship game tomorrow at 10 a.m. against Martensdale-St. Mary’s (40-2). That gives these two schools representation in both the baseball and softball state tournaments this summer.
 
Des Moines Christian thumped Emmetsburg 11-0 in the first round while Van Meter lost to Sumner-Fredericksburg 4-2. Van Meter came back yesterday to beat Wayne (Corydon) and Denver to win the consolation bracket (5^th place). DMC (29-6) beat Durant 4-0 in the semifinal round this afternoon and will take on Treynor (27-5) in the 2A state championship game tomorrow at 12:15 p.m.
 
Ballard, the team that sidelined Greene County in the regional semifinals, has advanced to 3A championship game after wins over Mid-Prairie (Wellman) and Bondurant-Farrar. Ballard (34-9) takes on Solon (38-6) tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.
 
Ballard and Bondurant-Farrar are members of the Raccoon River Conference which is having a banner year at the state tournament with 5 of 10 teams qualifying—half of the league. Along with Ballard and Bondurant-Farrar in 2A, Winterset, Carlisle and Dallas Center-Grimes all qualified in Class 4A. DCG has advanced to the championship tomorrow against Indianola.

Central Iowa teams have fared very well at this year’s tournament with a team in each championship game tomorrow. Three of the games are “all Central Iowa.” Its Earlham and Martensdale-St. Mary’s in 1A; Indianola and DCG in 4A; and Ankeny vs. Des Moines East in 5A; along with Des Moines Christian in Class 2A and Ballard in Class 3A.

 
Two Raccoon River Conference teams have qualified in the baseball tournament, as DCG and ADM (Adel) made the field in Class 3A. North Polk in 2A baseball is the lone representative in either tournament from the Heart of Iowa Conference, while the Rolling Hills had no qualifiers this season.