Carroll, IA- The second Class 2A quarterfinal matchup of the day had everything a baseball fan could ask for: drama, excellent pitching, outstanding defense, and controversy. Unfortunately, #5 Mediapolis was on the wrong side of that controversy in their 5-1 loss to #4 Unity Christian.

One play can change everything from momentum to legacy—just look at former Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. In this case, you can even ask Mediapolis head coach Rick Whitaker,

“Yeah, I always say that’s baseball, but… it turned the whole ball game. Yeah, that was a momentum switcher for sure… I don’t want to blame that play on the game because they still scored five runs against us. You know? So yeah, it is what it is.”

That pause after “that’s baseball, but” was not of pensive thought, rather an invitation to relive the moment that the ballgame was flipped on its head for the Bulldogs. A moment of awkward dejection in the top of the 4^th inning.

But how did we get here? For that we go back to before the game.

Mediapolis earned the #5-seed after going 27-2, including three straight postseason shutouts at the hands of senior Lance Ludens. His 19.2 innings pitched, allowing only six hits, and striking out 20 almost single-handily brought the Bulldogs to their second state tournament appearance in program history.

Unity Christian was making their second straight state tournament appearance—fourth overall—after shaking off a 4-6 start to the season to win 22 of their last 25 games, including a 4-0 shutout of Estherville Lincoln Central in the substate championship.

The Knights had their own aces up their sleeve on the mound in Adler Van Essen and Braeden Bosma. The overall makeup of the team was almost identical to their 2021 squad, which was also a #4-seed, with eight upperclassmen in the starting lineup on most days.

The Game

Scott Parcher Field was ready to house a premier pitching matchup as Ludens entered the matchup with a 1.23 ERA having not given up a run since June 25^th, while Van Essen was given the ball for the Knights as the sophomore rocked a 2.60 ERA.

Unsurprisingly, the Bulldogs went down in order with two sharp groundouts to Dylan Bosma at shortstop to start the game. Bosma carried that momentum into the bottom of the 1^st inning with a leadoff single, but three Knights later and it was on to the second inning.

A botch by Graden Van Essen at first base allowed Kyler Crow to scamper to second base on the first play to start the top half of the second frame. Yet, two popouts and strikeout later and the Bulldogs were heading back to the field.

The bottom of the second inning did not offer much as Ludens located his first strikeout of the game after allowing a walk and the Knights were kept off the board without advancing past first base.

Mediapolis finally broke through when Braeden Oliver slapped a ball into right-centerfield and managed to sprint around to third base on his second triple of the season. A Will Luttenegger line drive into left field gave Mediapolis a 1 to 0 lead.

“This was the end goal really” said Ludens. “You know, to make it to the state tournament. You know, once we got here, our goal was to play our butts off and try to see how far we can get. And unfortunately, this was it. But just to be here, it’s a great feeling, so I’m happy for it.”

The senior was doing more than playing his butt off, he was nearly infallible on the mound. In his last six game on the hump, he produced an arcane 0.35 ERA, surrendering just two runs in five starts, while fanning 45.

He brought his total to three in the game after striking out two and picking off Dylan Bosma for an unconventional 1-2-3 third inning. Mediapolis led 1 to 0 after three complete innings.

The team was not done either as the Max Griffin and Henry Luttenegger produced back-to-back two out walks in the top of the fourth inning with Oliver due up.

This is where our story takes a tragic turn. Oliver blooped the ball into right-centerfield again, falling underneath Eli Ruschman’s outstretched glove and rolling towards the wall, allowing Griffin and Luttenegger to score and Oliver to stand triumphantly at second with his team up 3 to 0.

Until, the Knights threw the ball over to first base, challenging whether Oliver had missed the bag when he rounded it to head to second base. The first base umpire ruled that he had missed it. The runs did not count since it was technically a force play at first base.

Two runs taken off the board and the top of the frame was now over, the Bulldogs still led 1 to 0 but the momentum had taken an unforeseen turn. Ludens addressed the situation after the game,

“You know it is what it is, you know? Umpire is gonna miss a few calls here and there. You just gotta take it with a grain of salt and move on. I mean, you gotta claw back and try to do what you can to get back. I’m still happy with our effort, you know. I think we did our best. So, despite that, you know, momentum shifts hard. If that doesn’t get overturned, we’re up 3-0, you know, feeling good. But it’s alright, I’m still extremely proud of what we did.”

The senior was back to business in the bottom of the fourth inning, popping out Braeden Bosma, a third-team All-State member last year, and striking out Graden Van Essen to make it two outs.

Then Austin Wieringa singled into centerfield and advanced to second a passed ball. A Brady Boogerd dribbler on the opposite side of the infield bounced away from Hayden Gugeler and allowed Wieringa to tie the game at 1.

Then the avalanche started, a popup in the infield was lost in the sun allowing the inning to continue with runners on first and third base. A Skyler Atlemeier groundball went between the legs of Will Luttenegger who had already made three impressive plays at the hot corner allowing the Knights to take a 2 to 1 lead.

Mediapolis entered the game having committed only 36 errors for the season, yet a couple of miscues allowed the Knights to rally back. Coach Whitaker knows his team should have shaken off the errors, but those types of plays have a way of compounding,

“Yeah, and this turf is a lot faster than you know we’ve played on, you know, Solon’s was pretty fast too, but this this was a lot faster and the ground a little harder, you know, not to make excuses for my guys because like you said, you know, we’ve been a really good defensive team all year and yeah, that they were the kind of team, you know, that we got to make those plays or bad things will happen. You know, we’re not going to score against, you know, two really good pitchers. We’re probably not going to score 8-9 runs. We’re going to score four or five, maybe six, and then we’re gonna let our pitching, our defense, you know, hold them.”

The tough part was that Mediapolis’ offense has been slumping for the last five games. The Bulldogs went from a 0.418 batting average and scoring 54 runs in a five-game stretch starting at the end of June, to a 0.211 batting average, scoring only 13 runs in their last five showdowns.

Unfortunately, the slumping would continue as Braeden Bosma entered the game in relief and managed to get his own unconventional 1-2-3 fifth inning after Will Luttenegger was caught trying to steal second base after reaching on an error.

A Dylan Bosma leadoff triple in the bottom of the fifth inning spelled disaster as Hall’s weak grounder to Gugeler allowed Bosma enough time to score on the play to extend the lead to 3 to 1.

Again, the Knights went to work with two outs, slapping three consecutive singles against Ludens to extend the lead to four runs: 5 to 1. Six of the Knight’s eight hits occurred with two outs in the inning. The senior’s day was over.

Max Griffin and Bosma did not allow another baserunner for the rest of the game as Unity Christian walked away with the 5-1 victory.

Ludens, Oliver, and Payton Doty’s careers at Mediapolis were done in one afternoon at Merchants Park. Coach Whitaker was not shy in expressing his emotions about this senior class,

“I broke down a little bit in the huddle…Those guys have been with me for five years as 8th graders all the way up here and just their personality, you know, all the kids are different. But you know, Lance is a bulldog. He’s a fighter. We got Brayden Oliver, who just had a fantastic year. You know, didn’t have the greatest couple of years and then he just had a huge year. He had two hits there, you know. And then Payton, he’s almost caught every inning behind the plate, you know, 95° weather and he’s as tough as nails. He’s one of the better catchers in Class 2A, I for sure love those guys.”

Ludens, who committed to play baseball at Central College, could not have asked for a better group to go on this adventure with,

A great, great group of guys, you know. It’s like a family, you know, every time we’re together, we’re tearing stuff up. But yeah, it’s a blast. I wouldn’t rather be here with anyone else.

This 2025 Mediapolis squad will go down as one of the greatest in their program’s history with 27 wins, a district and substate championship, and their second trip to the state tournament. Coach Whitaker believes this moment will motivate future Bulldog teams,

“You know, we’ve had a lot of, you know, a lot of good teams in my 8 years here, but we’ve never got over the hump. Shoot, we haven’t even won a district championship before this year, so this is huge. I mean, we got over one little hump. We got over the big hump to get here, you know. And this experience, if we ever get a chance, you know, to come back and I and I think these guys have a really good chance to come back, they’ll already know kind of what to expect. You know, this is the first time for me, first time for my assistant coaches, it’s the first time for these guys. So, you don’t have any experience, and I think that’ll help us as a program, you know, and then tasting this a little bit, when you taste the state tournament, hopefully the younger guys like hey, this is where we want to be, ‘let’s work, let’s go.”

One play can make or break a game, but it will not define the legacy of this year’s team. It may be used as fuel to stoke the fire of next year’s squad though.