Solon, IA- It would have taken the entire town of Mediapolis to rip Lance Ludens off the mound in the Class 2A Substate 4 championship bout against another Bulldog squad in MFL MarMac, at least that’s what Mediapolis head coach Rick Whitaker thought,
“Yeah, if I came out there, he would be ticked.”
The strategy was to ride Ludens for all seven innings and the plan worked to perfection as he threw a complete game shutout, sending Mediapolis to their second state tournament appearance in program history with a 2-0 victory over MFL MarMac.
Ludens, a Central College commit, has been masterful throughout this postseason run having started against West Liberty and Durant, tossing 12.2 innings of scoreless ball and striking out 11 in the process.
MFL MarMac’s Parker Kuehl was poised to duel on the mound having also started the last two games for the Bulldogs, logging 11.2 innings allowing only five hits, two earned runs, and fanning 19.
There was little doubt that it might only take one run to win this contest as Mediapolis had failed to score more than four runs in the past four games after a spree of 85 runs scored in an eight-game span and MFL MarMac had gone from averaging 12.1 runs per game in their first 21 games of the season to 4.4 runs per game in their last nine showdowns.
Despite the recent use and a fastball with not as much steam behind it as it would with a typical rest period, Ludens was riding the adrenaline that comes from entering these big moments,
“Confident in my defense, so every game I just try to come out, stay relaxed, stay calm, throw some strikes, hopefully roll some ground balls and let my defense do most of the work tonight. I was a little hyped up, so I was feeling really good, and I think I got a few more strikeouts I normally do, but yeah, just coming in, staying calm and treating every game like the last. It’s a job. It’s a business. So just get the job done.”
He started the strikeout chain in the top of the 1st inning after getting Kuehl to popout on the first pitch of the game, sitting down Jacob Schellhorn and Brayden Gordon on strikes. Ludens saved the orange-and-black Bulldogs from going 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame with a single but a groundout by Kyler Crow ended the inning an at-bat later.
Ludens would add another strikeout in the top of the 2nd inning before allowing his first baserunner in the 3rd inning on a leadoff hit-by-pitch to Kyler Nuehring. The future member of the Dutch proceeded to fan the next two batters before popping out Kuehl for the second time. Three innings down, no hits, no runs, one baserunner, five strikeouts.
Kuehl would get into trouble in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Henry Luttenegger and Braeden Oliver hit back-to-back two out singles to put runners on first and second base. Nevertheless, quick reflexes on the mound stopped a sharp grounder off Hayden Guegler’s bat, thwarting the threat. Moreover, a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the third kept the game even.
Kuehl was now through three innings, allowing only three hits and striking out two. Zeroes still on the scoreboard.
The defensive momentum carried over into the top of the 4th inning with a Schellhorn leadoff single. A strikeout and fielders choice left a runner on first base and two away when Jaxon Millage managed a single to put Bulldogs on first and second base. Then Ludens slammed the door again with his seventh strikeout of the game.
Around this time last year, Mediapolis was on the opposite end of a two-run walk-off home run by Anamosa in the District Championship. But, the nucleus of the team was set to return to the diamond for the 2025 season, still coach Whitaker knew some things would have to bounce their way,
“I knew we were going to have one of my better teams and I’ve had a I’ve had quite a few good teams, especially my first couple of years, but we just didn’t get the breaks. And you got to get the brakes when you play baseball sometimes… You know, you get a little bit of luck, and you have a good team. That’s when you go and I think, the chemistry and the camaraderie, it’s all got it’s all got to come together. So, I thought we had a chance. But I wasn’t 100% positive because anything can happen in Iowa baseball…”
Crow was the one to receive the break, on a 1-2 count, Kuehl hung a curveball. Expeditiously, the ball left the park over the left-centerfield fence, Mediapolis now led 1 to 0. Crow was also quick to move around the bases,
“I mean I it felt good off the bat, but it was a line drive, and I didn’t want to be in one of those situations where I pimped it, and then it didn’t go over. So, I just hustled to first and once I heard everyone cheer, then I slowed down and took my jog and made sure to put our team ahead in the game so we could go win it.”
Coach Whitaker also felt that same relief as the ball cruised over the fence,
“I thought it was gone right off the bat, but I wasn’t sure because they have a really tall fence here [Solon High School]. I don’t show a lot of emotion on the field during the game, but I did there.”
Nevertheless, the inning was not over yet as two errors by Millage at first allowed Max Griffin and Henry Luttenegger to get on base, leading to an Oliver RBI-single moving Mediapolis to a 2 to 0 lead.
A year ago, Oliver went 0 for 6 at the plate with three strikeouts. As a senior, he is now hitting over 0.370 at the plate.
“I love to talk about that kid [Oliver] because he’s our senior hitting the eight spot all year” said coach Whitaker. “Last year he was our right fielder… and I had to DH for him and he just worked his butt off in the offseason. And he’s been one of our better hitters all year. I’m superstitious, so I didn’t want to move him from that hole because he sees a lot of fastballs down there. So, I’m like, I’m just going to leave him down there and let those teams think OH 8-9 let’s go. And a lot of times throughout the year the bottom of the order has basically come through for us.”
That short spurt of offense was followed by both teams being set down in order in the 5th and 6th innings with Ludens collecting another strikeout, while Kuehl tabbed three more. MFL MarMac was down to their final three outs of the 2025 season and the Bulldogs were going to go down swinging.
Ben Krambeer started the top half of the frame with a single and Millage followed suit, redeeming his miscues in the field. No outs and the first two runners had reached. Ludens quickly responded by getting Wesley Corlett, who was pinch hitting for Kade Humble, to ground into a fielder’s choice at second base.
One out and runners at the corners. It was time for a rendezvous at the mound. Perhaps it was to calm his team down, maybe talk some strategy, or just maybe it was to settle his own nerves,
“But I still got anxious because these kids wanted it, so I want it so bad for the kids. Not for myself. I want it for those guys because you spend a lot. It’s summer baseball. I tell the kids all the time, you know, it’s different. It’s a different sport than you know, basketball, football because you’re during the school, summer. You’re just there’s no distractions. It’s just baseball, you know? And so, you spend a ton of time, you know, 30 some games and you’re together. I just wanted it for them, really. Because you become like a little family in the summer for sure.”
Ludens answered the call by striking out Nuehring for the second out of the inning. Tyce Wikner, an 8th grader, was now called to the bat. Ludens was there before, a kid with a dream of going to state and now he was one out away from living that dream.
One pitch, a flare into centerfield to the reliable glove of Crow and the game was over. Ludens had now thrown 19.2 innings, allowing zero runs on six hits, tabbing 20 strikeouts, and collected a 3-0 record in his postseason run. The man all about business on the mound earned a chance to live his childhood dream,
“Feels great. It’s been a long time coming. Ever since 8th grade, even before 8th grade, you know, when I was little, just putting the work in. I knew one day; I’d be in high school playing baseball and making the state tournament was something I always wanted to do. So finally getting be able to do it my senior year is a great feeling.”
Crow was quick to give his team the praise after the game for helping him play his best,
“I just like to give a big shout out to my team because you know it’s a team sport and they’ve helped me all the way through the year. Through my ups and through my downs, I couldn’t do it without them.”
The Bulldogs clinched the #5-seed a decade removed from their last trip to state, pinning them against the #4-seed Unity Christian at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, July 22nd, at Merchants Park in Carroll, Iowa.
Despite a 27-2 record, three-straight shutouts in the postseason, and a Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division title—a conference that has now sent seven teams to state in the last seven years including a state champion in New London, Crow knows Mediapolis will be considered longshots,
“You know, a lot of people have said we’ve had a bad schedule, or an easy schedule and a lot of people have put us down and I just mean I can’t wait to see their faces when they see that we’re on the ride to Carroll and a lot of the teams that they bet on aren’t so, you know, it feels great to be the underdogs. I mean, we’ve always been the underdogs in every tournament we go to. So, going to state is huge.”
KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 1:15 pm on Tuesday!