High School Baseball

Mt. Pleasant and Oskaloosa were locked in a heated contest that involved the Panthers walking it off in the bottom of the 7th to win 7-6. Mt. Pleasant held a 3-1 lead before Oskaloosa scored a run each in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game. The Panthers responded in the bottom of the sixth inning with a Payton Hagans RBI sacrifice bunt and a passed ball gave the squad a 5-3 lead. 

However, Oskaloosa would not go down quietly as they put up three runs in the top of the seventh to lead 6-5. Down to their final three outs, Carson Andreasen singled to start the inning and Payton Walker worked a walk before Ben Newton laced a single into the right-center field gap to score the tying run and move Walker to third. An intentional walk to Zach Newton brought up Cooper Coleman with an opportunity many dream about, bases loaded in a walkoff situation,

“Going into that at-bat, I just want to put the barrel onto the ball and score that final run for the team.”

Coleman smacked the ball to the fence for an RBI single, giving the Panthers the victory. Andreasen and Payson Coleman also registered an RBI in the win. Head coach Brent Broeker talked about the win after the game.

“Yeah. You know we’re getting better at fighting all the way through. I think our guys, you know we’ve been there where we just couldn’t get it done at the end. These kids have a different mindset. They just keep battling all the way through. And tonight it paid off for us.”

Mt. Pleasant will host Keokuk tomorrow, June 6th, at 7:30 pm. 

Winfield-Mt. Union had their contest against Wapello last night postponed. The Wolves will take on Highland tomorrow at 5:30 pm at home.

Fairfield defeated Williamsburg last night 7-5. Dain Burkhart, Aiden Westercamp, and Aiden Kreuter totaled two RBIs in the winning effort. The Trojans will play Burlington tomorrow at 7 pm on the road. 

New London scored four runs in the sixth inning to fend off Central Lee last night 11-9. Michael Raines led the squad with two RBIs as Memphis Watson slashed a triple and tallied an RBI. The Tigers will hit the road to face off against Danville on Friday, June 7th, at 5:30 pm. 

Central Lee will host Van Buren County tomorrow at 5:30 pm. 

Van Buren County will compete against Highland tonight at 5:30 pm on the road. 

Mediapolis will take on Keokuk tonight at 7:30 pm at home. 

Danville will compete against BGM tomorrow at 5:30 pm at home. 

Burlington Notre Dame will host Pekin tonight at 5:30 pm. 

West Burlington will travel to face off against Hillcrest Academy today. 

High School Softball

Winfield-Mt. Union had their matchup against Wapello postponed last night. The Wolves will take on Holy Trinity Catholic tonight at 5:30 pm at home. 

Holy Trinity Catholic lost to Mediapolis last night 11-1. Avalynn Prall finished 2 for 4 with a double and a team leading three RBIs. The Bulldogs will compete against Columbus tonight at 7:30 pm on the road. 

New London will travel to Wapello tonight at 5:30 pm. 

WACO fell to Lone Tree last night 18-0. The Warriors will take on Pekin tomorrow, June 6th, at 7 pm on the road. 

Danville will face off against Louisa-Muscatine tonight at 7 pm. 

West Burlington will travel to Hillcrest Academy today. 

Central Lee will take on Van Buren County tomorrow at home at 7 pm. 

Mt. Pleasant will host Keokuk tomorrow at 7:30 pm. 

Fairfield will look to avoid the sweep against Burlington tomorrow at 7:30 pm on the road. 

High School Tennis

The 2024 State Coed tournament had their competitions yesterday and Xavier and Waukee Northwest each grabbed the gold.

In Class 1A, Xavier’s Bennett Link and Avery Link took down Claire Smock and Jack Briggs of Pella 6-3 and 6-4 in the semifinals to face off against Kate Holton and Parker Stroh of Columbus Catholic in the championship.

Stroh and Holton took the first set 6-3 but the Link duo captured the second set 7-5 and won the tiebreaker to win the championship. Smock and Briggs claimed third place over fellow Dutch Joshua Roozeboom and Bryn Higginbotham. 

Class 2A saw London Taylor and Kaden Taylor of Waukee Northwest defeat Lexi Moen and Beck Sissel of Valley to claim the gold. Katelyn Kock and Logan Sherman of Cedar Rapids Washington took third place, while Maddy Jepsen and Lucas Persson of North Scott finished in fourth. 

Prospect League

The Burlington Bees had their matchup against the Clinton LumberKings postponed last night. 

The Bees will attempt to play their first game of the week tonight against the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp at 7:05 pm on the road. The LumberKings will travel to face off against the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes tonight at 6:30 pm. 

This Day in Sports History

1974 – As’ Reggie Jackson and Bill North engage in clubhouse brawl in Detroit.

1981 – Astros Nolan Ryan passes Early Wynn as all-time walk leader (1,777).

2018 – Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was named 2017 top earning sports person by Forbes with $285 million.

Prep Golf- The Iowa Coed State Golf meet was held yesterday, and a local duo grabbed the gold.

Class 1A

Olivia Hines of Mediapolis has had a incredibly successful golf career for the Bulldogs with three trips to the state tournament, which culminated in a second and a third place finish individually.

She can now add a first-place medal to her hardware as Ben Wolter helped bring the title to Mediapolis with a score of 72. Dubuque Wahlert’s team of Ava Kalb and Ben Dolter took second place with a score of 74, while Sumner-Fredericksburg’s star Chole Bolte and Kyler Glenn grabbed a 75.

Class 2A

Three teams stood atop the standings as five teams were logjammed with a score of 75. Atop the pedestal was Jane Petersen and Preston Haefner of Cedar Rapids Washington as the pair shot a 71.

Nevada’s duo Olivia Axmear and Parker Rodgers finished in second place with a score of 73, while Tomas Rascon and Lauren Briggs of Burlington grabbed the bronze with a score of 74. Mt. Pleasant’s team of Kylie Walderbach and Reese Coffman shot a 90.

Prep Baseball- The Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association released their third week of rankings yesterday and three out of the four top teams remain undefeated in rankings.

Class 1A

Burlington Notre Dame’s offense has been unstoppable to start the season, while their pitching slowly starts to settle in allowing them to keep their #1 ranking. Out of their 10 wins, six have featured the Nikes score at least 11 runs and three wins have come via the shutout.

Eight players are currently batting over 0.300 and Dylan Kipp has been ripping the ball to a slash line of 0.519/0.667/0.926 as he has a team leading three home runs and tied for the team lead in RBIs with 12. Nine pitchers have currently been used, but a healthy team ERA of 1.17 impresses as Jaxon Sadler is 3-0 with a 1.31 ERA.

Lynnville-Sully is second on the rankings with a 10-0 record and Tri-Center’s 6-0 record currently ranks them back in 7^th. Last year’s champion, Remsen St. Mary’s currently sits in 5^th with a 7-1 record.

Hillcrest Academy is currently off the watchlist despite boasting a 3-0 record to start the season.

Class 2A

Underwood, last year’s runner-up, currently sits atop he rankings with a limited resume of 4-0. We could very well see a rematch of last year’s championship as Beckman Catholic ranks 3^rd with a record of 9-2.

Mid-Prairie, who was a game away from the state tournament last year, is 8-1 on the season and ranked 5^th.

Class 3A

Western Dubuque and North Polk battled last year for the state championship and the rankings reflect the ending from a year ago with Western Dubuque at #1 and North Polk as the runner-up.

#3 Marion’s undefeated season was spoiled by Solon last night, but this offense is something to fear as the Wolves are averaging 13 runs per game with a team slash line of 0.383/0.516/0.569.

Class 4A

Johnston is a perfect 14-0, thus ranked #1, but Class 4A is highly competitive. Six of the top ten teams have less than four losses and the top three of Johnston, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, and Iowa City High already have 14 wins on the season.

Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln is the only squad looking in with double-digit wins as of the time of the rankings.