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 7th. Last year’s champion, Remsen St. Mary’s currently sits in 5th 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 3rd 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 5th.
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.