Hawkettes End Regular Season 6-15

OPEN REGIONAL ACTION TONIGHT AGAINST CRB

East Greene ended the girls basketball regular season on a sour note, falling to Iowa Christian Academy, 52-20, on Tuesday night in Rippey. The loss dropped the Hawkettes to 6-15 for the season and to 5-13 in the Rolling Hills Conference, where they finished seventh in the 10-team league. Iowa Christian finished in fourth place with a 13-5 mark.

It marked the final home appearance for four EG seniors: Katlynn Gannon, Tia Lowe, Molly Neese and Jasmine Kinney. Lowe and Gannon were the only two Hawkettes to get on the board with 11 and 9 points respectively. Karlie Schut had a big night for the Blazers with 19 points and 16 rebounds. She was 9-of-10 scoring from the field. ICA held the Hawkettes to just 1 point in the second quarter, allowing them to take a 30-7 lead and halftime and then coast to the win.

Both teams head into regional action tonight. EG travels to Coon Rapids to face Coon Rapids-Bayard, a team that tied with Guthrie Center and Woodward-Granger for fourth in the West Central Conference with a 9-7 mark. CRB is 11-9 overall, with a season-opening win over IKM-Manning (15-4), the No. 11 team in Class 2A to its credit, along with a 30-28 victory over Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton, which tied for second this year in the Rolling Hills.

Iowa Christian (14-6) heads to Guthrie Center (11-10) to take on the Tigerettes in a first-round regional game. The winner of that game will advance to the quarterfinal round in Adair next Tuesday to take on the winner of second round game scheduled for Saturday night in Adair that will match up Adair-Casey (18-3) with the winner of tonight’s EG-CRB clash. Adair-Casey locked down the Rolling Hills title on Tuesday with a 16-2 league mark, and made its first appearance in the Class 1A rankings yesterday, coming in at the No. 15 spot.

The winner of next Tuesday’s Region 8 quarterfinal game in Adair will advance to the semifinal game to be played in the new West Central Valley gym in Stuart. The four teams vying to reach the semifinal round in the lower bracket of the region are Ankeny Christian, Earlham, Grandview Park Baptist and Martensdale-St. Mary’s.

Ankeny Christian (13-9), which finished strong with a fifth-place finish in the Rolling Hills at 10-8, will head to Earlham. The Cardinals were 7-13 overall and 3-12 in the West Central, tying them with Van Meter for seventh place. The winner tonight in Earlham will take on the winner of tonight’s battle between Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Grandview Park Baptist in a quarterfinal round game on Tuesday night in Martensdale. MStM will be heavy favorite, as they are the No. 1-ranked team in Class 1A with a 19-2 record. MStM’s only losses were to OA-BCIG, the top-ranked 2A team in the state, and Southeast Polk, a 4A team. The Blue Devils, who won the Pride of Iowa Conference with a perfect 16-0 mark, have posted big wins over West Central champion Panorama, a 2A school, and Mt. Ayr, also a 2A school and a Pride of Iowa league rival. Mt. Ayr (18-2) heads into 2A tourney action ranked fourth in the state. The Blue Devils’ drubbing of Panorama, 61-26, came in the first game of the season. Both MStM and Mt. Ayr were in the field of last year’s 1A state tournament with Mt. Ayr advancing to the championship game, losing to Exira, last year’s Rolling Hills Conference champion.

Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton posted a strong team again this year, finishing second in the Rolling Hills tied with CAM (Anita). Both posted 15-3 marks, just a game behind Adair-Casey. Each has been ranked among the Top 15 in Class 1A this season.

CAM takes on league foe Walnut in Anita tonight while EEHK hosts AHST (Avoca) in the upper half of the Region 8 bracket. Both will be heavy favorites to advance to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday in Anita. The quarterfinal round winner will move on to the semifinal round game scheduled for next Friday, Feb. 18, in Red Oak against one of the other four teams in the upper bracket of the region: Fremont-Mills, Riverside, East Mills and Sidney.

The Red Oak semifinal game winner will take on the team to advance from the Stuart semifinal tilt in the Region 8 final on Monday, Feb. 21, Atlantic.

Seven of the 10 teams in the Rolling Hills are in Region 8—which pulls together teams from central, west central, western and southwest Iowa—while Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan are in Region 2 (western and northwest Iowa) and Orient-Macksburg is in Region 7 (far southwest and deep southern Iowa).

Orient-Macksburg hosts Corning tonight while Paton-Churdan takes on Southeast Webster-Grand at Burnside and Glidden-Ralston has the unenviable task of taking on Ar-We-Va, the second-ranked 1A team in the state, on the Rockettes’ home court in Westside. If OM wins, it will travel to Villisca to take on the Lenox-Villisca winner. Winners of the games at SWG and Ar-We-Va will face each other Tuesday in Westside with the winner advancing to the semifinal game in Denison. Semifinal winners from Denison and Orange City will meet in the Region 2 final on Feb. 21 in Mapleton.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawkettes showed real promise early this season, getting out of the gate with a 5-3 record through the Christmas break. EG was only able to post one additional victory since then, however, downing winless Paton-Churdan in Rippey. EG fell to teams it had beaten earlier in the season—Walnut, Glidden-Ralston and Ankeny Christian—yet the Hawkettes were competitive in all of those games and in two close losses to Orient-Macksburg (each by three points).

It will be interesting to see how the Rolling Hills stacks up to the competition in the regionals, especially in Region 8, which features the top 5 teams in the league: Adair-Casey, CAM, EEHK and the two Christian academies from Des Moines.

The opening round has some interesting matchups, especially Iowa Christian at Guthrie Center, and Ankeny Christian taking on Earlham. Guthrie has a deep girls basketball tradition and the West Central is a solid conference while Iowa Christian was a real threat in the Rolling Hills this year, downing CAM by 10 points and losing to EEHK by only 3. Guthrie played four games in a six-day period that ended Tuesday night, marked by two big wins over West Central Valley; a near upset of Des Moines Christian, falling 47-44; and a loss to CRB, 33-25.

Other than Exira’s run to the championship in 2010 and a state tournament trip in 2008, the only other area 1A or 2A teams to advance to state in recent years have been tradition-rich Guthrie and CRB of the West Central, and Southeast Webster-Grand, a longtime area rival of EG. Guthrie Center most recently qualified for state in 2007 and 2002, and is widely known as a “girls basketball town” as the Tigerettes have qualified for state an amazing 21 times, topped only by Ankeny (23) trips and equaled by Mediapolis. Coon Rapids-Bayard made it to state in 2009, giving the school 9 total trips—7 by Coon Rapids and 2 by CRB. SWG qualified in 2006 and 2008. Coupled with appearances at state by Grand in 1960, Dayton in 1974, and Central Webster in 1983, SWG has 5 total appearances to its name.

If CRB gets by the Hawkettes tonight, they will face Adair-Casey on the Bombers’ home floor for the right to move on to the quarterfinal round, yet another matchup between Rolling Hills and West Central teams. CRB has big wins over EEHK, 38-30, in December and its win on Tuesday over Guthrie, a team it lost to earlier in the season 34-31. AC split with both CAM and EEHK on its way to the Rolling Hills title and interestingly, its only other loss on the year was to Guthrie Center. A rematch of those two teams is a possibility in the quarterfinal round also.

Panorama won the West Central title this year 15-1, just ahead of another 2A school, Des Moines Christian. 13-2. CRB, Guthrie, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger were all bunched together in the middle of the league with WCV going 9-6 with one game cancelled due to snow and the other three teams right behind at 9-7.

In the bottom of the Region 8 bracket, Ankeny Christian has come on strong at the end of the season, posting a big win over CAM on Monday, knocking the Cougars out of the league lead. ACA has gone 3-1 in non-conference play beating Grandview Park Baptist, Madrid and Twin Cedars (Bussey) and losing to Clarke (Osceola), a 2A school. This the best the small Christian academies have done in the Rolling Hills since they joined the league a few years ago after first fielding varsity high school athletics. Last year, ICA and ACA finished fifth and seventh in the league and this year they improved to fourth and fifth—even more impressive when considering the competition included another larger school that moved in from the West Central (EG) and a team formed by two individual competitors from last year (Exira and EHK), which made for a combined enrollment of 119, considerably more than ICA, 56, and ACA, 38.

For comparison purposes, enrollment for the other league teams breaks down like this: CAM 103, GR 102, AC 83, EG 81, OM 57, Walnut 43, and PC 35.

All in all, Martensdale-St.Mary’s looks to be the solid favorite to come out of EG’s half of the bracket with what should be an easy first-round win over Grandview Park Baptist (4-17) and then a solid tussle with Ankeny Christian in the quarterfinal round. It should be interesting in the semifinal round because ICA, GC, CRB and AC would each give them a real challenge—especially with the basketball heritage of CRB and GC—but MStM is also a tournament-tested team as the Blue Devils advanced to state last year as did league foe Mt. Ayr, which attest to the strength of the Pride of Iowa.

Either CAM or EEHK should make it to the semifinal round to most likely face Sidney (15-6), the only other team with a winning record on the Red Oak side of the region.

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.

Hawks Get 16th Win of Season

TAKE ON SWG IN DISTRICT OPENER TONIGHT

An extra-inning 3-2 thriller over Madrid Thursday night pushed East Greene’s season win total to 16 games, surpassing the 15-10 mark of 2008 and last year’s 14-15 record for the 2009 state tournament team. That team entered post-season play at 10-14 and then went on a four-game streak that did not end until a loss to Newman (Mason City) in the first round of the state tourney at Principal Park in Des Moines.

A steal home by Jessie Priest in the bottom of the 8th inning got the win for the Hawks. Priest went 1-2 at the plate with an RBI and a double and Wes Onken went 2-4. Onken picked up the win, giving up 6 hits, three walks and 1 wild pitch while striking out 8. The Hawks were guilty of three errors, but Aaron Lyons was one bright spot on the defense as he made a spectacular catch in right center to rob Madrid’s Eric Simmons of a potential two-run homer in the sixth.

The enthusiasm of 16 wins was tempered however with a 17-6 drubbing the following night from Coon Rapids-Bayard. The Crusaders were playing for the league championship, as was Woodward-Granger in its tilt with Des Moines Christian in Woodward. WG came out in that one, 7-6, leaving CRB and WG as West Central co-champions at 17-1.

The EG-CRB and DMC-WG matchups were actual make-up games that were rained out earlier in the season.

The loss to CRB closed out EG’s regular season with an 8-9 mark in the conference, good for fifth place. The Hawks had a tough week overall, going 1-3 with a loss to co-champ Woodward- Granger 4-3 on Tuesday and to Panorama 12-8 on Wednesday.

Des Moines Christian had already locked up third place in the conference, but was looking for momentum heading into this week’s districts. Adding further drama to Friday’s games was that this week’s district pairings could set up another round of EG-CRB and WG-DMC matchups.

EG (16-11) opens tourney play tonight at 5 p.m. in Coon Rapids against Southeast Webster (0-24) a team it beat handily in the season opener, 12-3. In the other half of the twin bill at Coon Rapids at 7 p.m., the Crusaders (23-7) take on a much improved Glidden-Ralston (10-9) squad that finished in third place in its first season in the Rolling Hills. Tuesday’s winners advance to the District semifinal round on Thursday, also to be played in Coon Rapids.

On the opposite side of the bracket in District 12, CAM (Anita) drew a bye while undefeated Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira (21-0), ranked fourth in the state in Class 1A, takes on Adair-Casey (8-14) tonight in Adair. The winner meets CAM (4-14) in a semifinal game Thursday in Adair. Thursday night’s winners face off for the District 15 championship on Saturday in Coon Rapids.

The District 15 winner meets the District 16 winner on Tuesday, July 20, in Denison with the winner advancing to the state tournament in Des Moines. Teams in District 16 are Woodbine, Boyer Valley (Dunlap), Charter Oak-Ute, Ar-We-Va (Westside), Woodbury Central (Moville).

EHK/Exira rolled to the Rolling Hills championship with a perfect 12-0 record, with Iowa Christian (West Des Moines) in second and Glidden-Ralston in third.

Rolling Hills Final Conference Standings
(Conference record, season record)
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 12–0, 24–0
Iowa Christian Academy 9–3, 11–7
Glidden-Ralston 7–5, 10–9
Walnut 5–7, 12–12
Adair-Casey 4–8, 8–14
CAM 3–9, 4–14
Orient-Macksburg 2–10, 6–13

With four of the top five spots in the West Central Conference going to Class 1A teams, the chances are high for several teams to make a deep run in the post-season.

Woodward-Granger (22-4) opens district play tonight against Madrid (5-18) on the Tigers’ home diamond at 7 p.m. following a 5 p.m. game that pits Colo-Nesco against Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg). The winners meet in Madrid on Thursday at 7 p.m. The opposite side of the district bracket features four teams that all have state tournament potential. Martensdale-St Mary’s gets the home field advantage and heads into its opening round game against Grandview Park Baptist with an impressive 35-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in Class 1A. Grandview Park Baptist made it to state two years ago and last year advanced to the substate before bowing out to EG. DMC (14-9) takes on Iowa Christian Academy, runner-up in the Rolling Hills Conference, in the opener at St. Mary’s. The winners square off Thursday in St. Mary’s in the semifinal round. The semifinal winners from Madrid and St. Mary’s will meet for the district title in Madrid on Saturday night.

WG looks pretty solid to make it out of first two rounds, but it could be a tall order for DMC to beat both Iowa Christian and then top-ranked MStM to set up a rematch of last Friday’s game with the Hawks in the final at Madrid.

The five 2A teams in the West Central opened district tourney action Saturday night and the only win was West Central Valley over league foe Guthrie Center, 10-5. Interstate 35 (Truro) beat Earlham, 6-2; CMB (Baxter) beat Van Meter, 7-6; and Audubon beat Panorama, 9-0.

West Central Valley advances to the semifinal round where the Wildcats will take on Audubon tonight in Guthrie Center.

West Central Final Conference Standings
(Conference record, season record)
Woodward-Granger 17–1, 22–4
Coon Rapids-Bayard 17–1, 23–7
Des Moines Christian 13–4, 14–9
Earlham 9–8, 14–14
East Greene 8–9, 16–11
Van Meter 8–10, 16–14
Panorama 7–11, 8–15
West Central Valley 4–14, 7–19
Madrid 3–15, 5–18
Guthrie Center 3–15, 5–22

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawks will really need to pull it all together to come anywhere close to what they pulled off last season. The deck is stacked with both Coon Rapids-Bayard, a perennial 1A baseball power, and the newly combined EHKE—undefeated and state-ranked—in District 15.

EG does get an advantage as it faces winless Southeast Webster-Grand in the opening round while CRB takes on a solid Glidden-Ralston club. GR scored a nice win over Iowa Christian early in the season, although it lost non-conference tilts to both EG and CRB. EHKE is the hands-down favorite on the Adair side of the ledger. Adair-Casey was the winner out of the district played in Coon Rapids last year and upset the home team in the semifinal round, and then advanced all the way to the state tourney along with EG. The Hawks won the Ames district and Ankeny substate.

Pitching and avoiding key mistakes on defense will be key in the district. Iowa high school baseball pitchers are limited to 16 total innings a week (Sunday through Saturday) and no more than 9 innings in any one day or two consecutive days. And after 9 innings, a pitcher must have two complete calendar days of rest. So if a pitcher is stretched to 9 innings in, say, an opening round game on Tuesday. He must rest Wednesday and Thursday, but come pitch on Saturday in the finals, but no more than 7 innings.

CRB will need to put a solid pitcher the mound in its opener against GR while East Greene can keep its top two aces, Onken (6-2) and Tyler Cooklin (4-4) in reserve for a big semifinal game—most likely against CRB—and then a final against EHKE if they should get by the Crusaders. Onken has the better record for EG, but Cooklin was on the mound when the Hawks took on the league leaders in the conference. Look for freshman pitcher Reed Ostrander (3-2) to get the start against SWG.

The Crusaders have a veritable stable of solid pitchers: Tyler Boeke (7-0), Jay Carstens (6-1), Gage Reis (5-1) and Jacob Esdohr (4-2) and three others who pitched three or fewer games. EHKE has gone all season with three pitchers, and all are undefeated: Carson Smith (10-0), Travis Stevens (8-0) and Nolan Himmelberg (6-0).

The good news for EG is that it all three pitchers for EHKE are seniors, so that should give the Hawks an advantage when they take on the Spartans in Rolling Hills action next year. And they won’t have to face CRB in home-and-away conference tilts, but hopefully the Crusaders will be on next year’s non-conference schedule as CRB and EG have made for a great rivalry over the years. Both Cooklin and Onken are juniors and Ostrander will be back for three more seasons, giving an anchor to build future Hawk pitching around.

EHKE has the edge in hitting with a .361 average while CRB is a very solid .327 and EG is .262. EG will need to shore up its fielding too, as it was guilty of 56 errors in 27 games while CRB erred 49 times in 30. EHKE committed 38 errors in 24 games, but EG and CRB were facing much better pitching and hitting in the West Central than EHKE saw in the Rolling Hills, but then again, the Spartans won just as many non-conference games, 12, as they did league matchups, and one of those non-league games was a 6-3 win over CRB on June 9.

EG BEATS SWG!

Down Eagles 8-2 in Tourney Opener

East Greene opened tourney action on its home field tonight (Tuesday) with an 8-2 win over Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside). With the win, EG advances on to Thursday night’s semifinal round game against Madrid, a 7-1 winner over Glidden-Ralston. Game time at Walt Anderson Field is 7 p.m. The winner on Thursday advances to the district championship game in Ames on Saturday.

In other area Class 1A and 2A games:
CRB 6, Ar-We-Va 3
Adair-Casey 6, Exira 0
Van Meter 5, Earlham 4 (8 innings)
Martensdale-St. Mary’s 5, Iowa Christian 2
Panorama 16, WCV 1
Bondurant Farrar 11, DMC 1 (5 innings)
Woodward-Granger 1, Ogden 0

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawks win over the Eagles breaks their five-year streak of opening round district tourney losses. Last year the Hawks went to CRB and took on the conference co-champs, losing 5-2. Two years ago, EG was hosting the tourney at Rippey but lost to Pomeroy-Palmer 8-6 in 8 innings in the first round. In the three previous years, EG dropped opening round games to GR in 2006, CRB in 2005, and Southern Cal in 2004. EG is usually placed in the same district as CRB and usually the games are played on the Crusaders’ home diamond in Coon Rapids. And each of the last five years, CRB has advanced to the district title game. CRB won the district in 2007, then took the substate crown and advanced on to the state tournament, where they made it to the semifinal round. CRB also won the district in 2005, but lost in the substate game to Walnut, repeating the same scenario from 2004, when they made it to substate, but were knocked out by West Harrison of Mondamin.

EG was the last team to keep CRB out of the district finals. EG beat Ar-We-Va in the first round 4-2 in 2003, then downed the Crusaders 8-4 on their home diamond in the semifinal round. EG took on Adair-Casey in the championship game in Coon Rapids, but lost to the Bombers, 4-2. AC lost to West Harrison 8-7 in the substate game, the first of two straight trips to state for West Harrison. WC foe Van Meter won the 1A state championship that season.

EG and CRB are in different districts--and substates--this year. CRB hosts all three rounds of district play and the substate game too. The Crusaders face Adair-Casey in Thursday’s semifinal round. The winner will play either Walnut or Elk Horn-Kimballton in the district final Saturday in Coon Rapids.

TOURNEY ACTION

Hawkettes Meet CRB in Regional

East Greene fell to Glidden-Ralston in its final regular season softball game, 10-0, in 5 innings at Glidden Monday night.

Wildcat ace Hallie Schon limited the Hawkettes to 1 hit while striking out 8 and walking just one. Ashley Thorpe took the loss, giving up 5 hits and 10 walks.

East Greene ended the regular season 4-18 and 2-16 in the West Central Conference. GR beat Panorama in a make-up game last night to end its last year in the conference as runner-up to Earlham with a 13-5 record.

West Central Conference
FINAL STANDINGS
Earlham 15-3
Glidden-Ralston 13-5
Des Moines Christian 10-7
Madrid 10-7
Van Meter 9-8
Guthrie Center 8-10
Panorama 8-10
West Central Valley 7-10
Coon Rapids-Bayard 5-11
East Greene 2-16

REGIONAL PREVIEW: EG heads to Coon Rapids tonight to take on Coon Rapids-Bayard in opening round regional Class 1A action. EG dropped a close game to the Crusaders 12-11 on its last trip to Coon Rapids on June 9. Last week, the two teams tangled again in Grand Junction, but CRB got the better of the Hawkettes, 12-3.

It’s a new season tonight though and the Hawkettes will be out to redeem their earlier losses. CRB finished just ahead of EG in the conference race at 5-11 but the Crusaders fared better in non-conference play as their overall season mark is 16-12.

EG and CRB face off at 7:30 p.m. as the nightcap in a doubleheader. Exira faces Adair-Casey in the first game at 6 p.m. Those two teams are in the lower half of the Coon Rapids bracket and the winner will advance to play the winner of the Earlham-CAM game tonight in Anita in the quarterfinals on Friday, also in Anita. Both of those games are at 7 p.m.

The EG-CRB winner takes on Glidden-Ralston, which got a first round bye, in a quarterfinal game at Coon Rapids, also on Friday. Winners of the games in Anita and Coon Rapids will meet in the regional semifinals on Monday at 7 p.m in Coon Rapids. The winner of that game will face the winner of the lower half of the Region 4 bracket in the final in Ames next Wednesday (June 15) at 7 p.m. with winner advancing to the 1A State Tournament in Fort Dodge.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Earlham and Glidden-Ralston look to have the upper hand in the Coon Rapids half of the bracket. GR ended the season at 22-7 and finished just behind Earlham in the always tough West Central. GR was ranked as high as seventh earlier this season. Earlham (26-8) should have an easy time in its half of the CR bracket opposite three teams from the Rolling Hills, which is not as competitive as the West Central which has a mix of 1A and 2A teams. The RH is all 1A teams. Exira won the RH at 9-1, just ahead of CAM and Orient-Macksburg, both at 7-3. Exira is 11-6 overall, CAM is 12-8 and Adair-Casey is 2-22.

West Central opponents Madrid and Van Meter are the in the lower half of the regional bracket. Madrid (15-17) opens at home against Colo-Nesco while Van Meter (9-19) hosts Grandview Park Baptist. The winners of those two games will face off Friday at Madrid, with the winner advancing to the semifinal round against the winner of the Sully quarterfinal game. Lynnville-Sully will be the favorite, hosting the first three rounds on its home diamond. Lynnville-Sully hosts BGM (Brooklyn) in round one and the winner will take on the GMG (Garwin)-North Tama (Traer) winner on Friday in Sully. Lynnville-Sully (20-7) is ranked 15th in Class 1A.

In Class 2A, conference opponents Des Moines Christian (13-19) and West Central Valley (15-12) are in the upper bracket of Region 8 and Panorama and Guthrie Center are in the region’s lower bracket. They all face stiff competition. DMC takes on Bondurant-Farrar (28-3), the No. 4 ranked team in Class 2A, Thursday night in Bondurant. West Central Valley travels to Greenfield to face Nodaway Valley (23-9) on its home diamond. The winner of those two games will advance to the quarterfinal at Bondurant on Friday. The winner Friday advances to the upper bracket semifinal in Truro, facing either Wayne (Corydon), Mount Ayr, Central Decatur or I-35 (Truro).

Panorama (13-16) travels to Alleman on Thursday to face North Polk (26-6), which tied for the Heart of Iowa-Large title with Bondurant-Farrar at 17-1. North Polk, ranked No. 3 in Class 2A, won the 2A state championship last year over Solon 4-2 and finished the season 40-4. North Polk has made 15 state tournament appearances and has been to state the last four seasons straight, also winning a title in 2006 and finishing third in 2007.

Guthrie Center takes on another area softball power, Woodward-Granger (20-9) at Woodward on Thursday. The winner advances to the quarterfinal in Alleman on Friday against the North Polk-Panorama winner. The Friday winner moves on to the semifinal game in Greenfield on Monday. Teams on the opposite side of the Greenfield (lower) bracket are Shenandoah, Clarinda, Griswold and Red Oak. The regional final is Wednesday, July 15, at Adel.

Also in Class 2A on Thursday, Jefferson-Scranton (14-13) opens regional play at Farnhamville against Prairie Valley (14-16) while Ogden (14-13) hosts Gilbert (5-15). Class 3A opens regional action on Saturday. Perry (1-27) travels to Carroll and Boone (21-8) hosts Nevada. The winners advance to the semifinal round at Boone on Monday with the regional final on Wednesday at Dallas Center.