After completing the 2006 regular season baseball season with a school record 37 wins against just two losses the West Delaware Hawks were ousted from the Class 3A State Baseball Tournament by  Western Dubuque, 2-0 last Friday night in Farley.

The Hawks had upped their record win season to 37 with a double header sweep of WaMaC Conference opponent Maquoketa, 10-0 and 5-0 last Monday night on Exide Field.

However, at tournament time everybody starts all over at 0-0 with an equal opportunity of fulfilling the early season aspirations of competing for a state title.

The Hawks and the Bobcats, undoubtedly the two best teams in Class 3A, District 6 got the unfortunate draw of facing each other in a district opener.

The game was touted as a pitchers dual with a pair of the best Class 3A hurlers in the state taking the mound in BJ Hermsen for West Delaware and Billy Schmitt for Western Dubuque.

The Bobcats used three first inning hits, a double and two singles to score the first run of the game and take a 1-0 lead.

The Hawks looked to draw even in the top of the second inning when Justin Gideon ended up on second base with one out following an error by the Bobcat center fielder.

Gideon was stranded at second following a fly and strike out by the next two Hawk batters.

Hermsen put down the Bobcats in order in the home half of the second without a ball leaving the infield.

Western Dubuque scored its second run of the game in the bottom of the third inning.

A lead off single was followed by a pair of Hawk errors that made the score 2-0 in favor of the Bobcats.

In the top of the fourth inning the Hawks Phil Keppler led off with a double down the left field line but was able to advance to no farther than third before the inning was over.

BJ Hermsen pitched himself out of trouble in the bottom of the fourth inning after the first batter reached on a Hawk error and advanced to second on a passed ball.

He was sacrificed to third and was left stranded as Hermsen struck out the next two Bobcat batters swinging.

Neither team threatened in the fifth or sixth innings with just one batter from each team able to reach base.

The Hawks looked like they would get back in the game in the top of the seventh inning when BJ Hermsen led off and reached first after being hit by a pitch. The second batter of the inning, Justin Gideon drew a walk to give the Hawks a pair of runners with no outs.

Schmitt then retired the next three Hawk batters to send the Bobcats on to the District 6 Championship game on Monday night against the Mustangs of Independence.

For the game the Hawks managed just one hit, Kepplers fourth inning double off of winning pitcher Billy Schmitt.

The Bobcats were not much more successful off of Hawks pitcher BJ Hermsen. They had just four hits in the game, three in the first inning and one in the third inning.

The Hawk season ended at 37-3 while the Bobcats kept alive with a season mark of 25-12.