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The
Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
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West Delaware boys advance to state baseball tournament
by Ken Boesenberg
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Heavy rain in the area forced the Hawks of West Delaware and the Bobcats of Western Dubuque to move their district final game to Cascade instead of Farley last Tuesday night.
West Delaware found the confines of Cascade to their liking as they moved to sub-state action with an 11-1 win over Western Dubuque.
With junior BJ Hermsen on the mound fans were hoping the Hawks could get him a few early runs to work with.
Lucas Kafer responded in the bottom of the second with a solo home run with two out to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
Hermsen breezed through the first three innings, striking out two in each inning.
In the home half of the third the Hawks put the game away with a nine run outburst.
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Zach McCool accepts congratulations from his teammates at home plate after hitting the first of what would be two home runs against the Bobcats. The second, a game winning walk off home run, came in the bottom of the sixth inning giving West Delaware an 11-1 win over the Bobcats. |
They had six hits in the inning and were aided by a pair of Western Dubuque errors.
Phil Keppler started the inning with a single, Zach McCool reached on a throwing error by the Bobcat pitcher and the route was on.
BJ Hermsen followed with an RBI single, Justin Gideon drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right and Garrett Linderwell plated a pair of runs with a single.
After a Clarke Butler single and a walk to Phil Keppler, Zach McCool crushed a three-run home run to give the Hawks a 10-0 lead.
Western Dubuque scored a lone run in the top of the fifth inning on a pair of walks and a hit to keep the game from ending via the 10-run rule in the fifth.
However, Zach McCool led off the bottom of the sixth for the Hawks and on the second pitch laced his second home run of the game over the left center field fence ending the game.
The win moved the top rated Hawks to the sub-state final in Oelwein against Waukon on Wednesday night.
Everything was not roses for the Hawks despite the win. They lost one of their senior leaders and one of the more improved players on the team in Chris Harbaugh.
Unfortunately Chris injured his right shoulder sliding back into first base trying to avoid being double up on a line drive out by Phil Keppler to the Bobcat second baseman.
The injury resulted in some defensive shuffling for the Hawks. Zach McCool went from his normal spot to short and Clarke Butler took over at second.
Both responded very well with several outstanding plays.
McCool’s diving play on a hard hit ground ball by the Bobcats Landon Klostermann, and subsequent throw to first was a defensive gem.
Butler was clean in the field, recording the final out in the top of the sixth on a hard hit ground ball by the Bobcats Charlie Beckman.
Butler also had a good night at the plate with a single and a pair of runs batted in.
Rain again played a role in the Hawks attempt to make it to Des Moines.
Scheduled for Wednesday night the sub-state final game with Waukon was put off until Thursday due to wet grounds in Oelwein.
With Garrett Linderwell on the mound the Hawks, who owned a pair of victories over Waukon already this season, punched their ticket to the 2007 State Baseball Tournament with an 8-0 shutout win over the Indians.
Linderwell spun a two hitter at the Indians while striking out 12 on his way to the post-season win.
He got all the run support he would need in the first when BJ Hermsen doubled home Lucas Kafer for the Hawks first run of the game.
Kafer had led off with a single to start the game.
The Hawks are as tough as anybody around in hitting positions one through five. However, on this night it would be the bottom third of the line up, Garrett Linderwell, Dan Marshall and Nathan King that accounted for nine of the Hawks 13 hits against the Indians.
Garrett Linderwell and Dan Marshall hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning while collecting three hits each in the game.
Nathan King had three singles batting in the number nine slot.
King drove in the Hawks second run of the game with an RBI single in the second inning.
LInderwell set down the first 12 Waukon batters he faced and did not allow a hit until the seventh inning.
The Hawks put the game away with a six run fourth.
Linderwell led off the inning with a home run and Dan Marshall followed suit.
Three straight singles, an error a walk and a double gave the Hawks an 8-0 lead.
The win was the 36th of the season for the Hawks who will play today (Tuesday) in the Class 3A State Baseball Tournament in Des Moines.
They will face Saydel (22-14) at 6:00 p.m. tonight. The winner of that game will play again on Friday at 2:00 p.m. against the winner of the Knoxville (34-6) and Webster City (20-11) game.
The top part of the 3A bracket has Cedar Rapids Xavier (31-8) playing Creston (19-13) with the winner of that contest taking on the winner of the Mont Pleasant (35-3) vs. Sioux City Heelan (26-14) contest.
The Class 3A Championship game is set for Saturday at 6:00 p.m. |
Two close wins leave Hawk girls one win from State Tournament
by Ken Boesenberg |
Win number 40 of the season did not come easy for the West Delaware girls, but it did come. A 2-1 nail bitter on Sill Field against WaMaC Conference rival, Marion in a first round district game last Thursday evening.
The Hawks trailed the Indians 1-0 after five innings.
In the top of the sixth West Delaware got a single by Sara Hermsen. With Kayla Vaske funning for Hermsen she scored on a Katie Murphy two-out single to left to knot the score at 1-1.
In the top of the seventh the Hawks got a lead off double from Haleigh Klein. She was still on second with two out when Katie Wessels lined a single to left field that scored Klein all the way from second on a very close play at the plate.
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Senior shortstop, Katlyn Heiserman makes a routine play to retire a batter during the Hawks 1-0 district final win over Waukon. |
Winning pitcher, Katie Murphy shut down the Indians in the bottom of the seventh to keep the Hawks hopes of reaching Ft. Dodge alive.
Murphy was the winning pitcher, she allowed three hits and struck out four.
On Saturday night the Hawks hosted the Indians of Waukon in a district final contest.
The Indians came into the game with an 18-20 record but proved to be no push over for the sixth ranked in Class 3A Hawks.
In the end it was once again Haleigh Klein who provided the Hawks with the victory.
Klein doubled home Kayla Vaske with two out in the top of the eighth inning to give West Delaware a 1-0 extra inning win over Waukon. Vaske was running for Sara Hermsen who had doubled to lead off the top of the eighth for the Hawks.
Winning pitcher, Katie Murphy disposed of the Indians in the bottom of the eighth to send the Hawks to the Regional Championship game on Monday night (last night) in Manchester against Dubuque Wahlert.
The Hawks were the visiting team and they looked to get on the board early. Ashley Hood led off the game by reaching on an error. Katlyn Heiserman followed with a single but the Hawks were unable to take advantage of the two on, nobody out situation.
West Delaware had runners on second and third in the third inning but could not push a run across.
All in all the Hawks had runners on base in every inning with the exception of the second before finally scoring in the eighth to pick up win 41 of the season.
Murphy got her way out of a bit of trouble in the seventh inning when she gave up a one out single and hit the next batter.
With runners on at first and second and just one out she got the next batter to strike out swinging and ended the inning with a harmless pop out to Kayla Bries at second base.
A win last night will put the Hawks in the Class 3A State Softball Tournament in Ft. Dodge on Wednesday night, August 1 at 7:30 against either Davenport Assumption of Clear Creek Amana. |
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