Prep Baseball- Hard to believe that the 2025 Iowa high school baseball regular season for Classes 1A and 2A will be closing up shop as the fireworks blast off for the 4th of July. But the holiday weekend will start off the first round of postseason play around the state, so let’s take a look at our local matchups.
Class 1A
Substate 5 will have our attention, specifically District 10, when action gets underway on July 5th at 5 pm. Moravia enters as the top seed for District 10, hoping to finally knock the doors down to a state tournament berth that has been denied routinely by the likes of New London and Burlington Notre Dame over the last several years.
The Mohawks are surprisingly great for such a young team, touting just three upperclassmen in the starting lineup. Blake Helmick is the senior captain for the team with a batting average north of 0.350 and an ERA south of 2.30. Yet, their entire pitching staff, full of sophomores and freshmen, sports a 1.98 ERA for the season.
In their first matchup, the Danville Bears, who are still searching for their first win of the season, will make the pilgrimage to Moravia to play at 7 pm. The Bears have struggled all over the diamond this year with a team batting average of 0.181, a team ERA of 7.09, and 4.3 errors per game.
The bright spots of the squad are Jaden Bauer, who leads the team with a 0.382 batting average with a triple, a home run, and seven RBIs, and Alex Holtkamp, who is slugging 0.520 with five RBIs and slinging a 3.63 ERA on the mound with 31 strikeouts.
Danville Player to Watch: Alex Holtkamp (0.360 batting average with one home run and five RBIs)
Moravia Player to Watch: Declan DeJong (0.490 batting average with three home runs and 19 RBIs)
The night will begin with a different matchup and a new team in the Class 1A ranks, Pekin versus Van Buren County at 5 pm with the Warriors acting as the home team in Moravia. The pair of contralateral Southeast Iowa Super Conference foes typically meet up once a year with the two having traded the last four matchups.
The Warriors handled the Panthers after an offensive explosion in the 2nd inning made it a 7 to 2 lead, eventually leading to a 14-3 thrashing. Three Panther errors helped six unearned runs score as Aiden McEntee was the only Warrior to finish with multiple RBIs (two) and Izaak Loeffler was the only one to tab an extra-base hit.
Since 2009, the two have met up 14 times with six of the games being decided by 10 runs or more and, aptly, the two have an even 3-3 record in those games. The Panthers do have the advantage in close games with a 3-1 record in games decided by two runs or less.
The winners of Moravia versus Danville and Van Buren County versus Pekin will play on July 8th at 7 pm.
Van Buren County Player to Watch: Izaak Loeffler (0.426 batting average with 10 RBIs)
Pekin Player to Watch: Henry Adam (0.472 batting average with one home run and eight RBIs with a 0.91 ERA and 44 strikeouts)
On the bottom half of the District 10 bracket, New London will get the host the Saturday night doubleheader with Burlington Notre Dame and Keota starting off the night at 5 pm. The Nikes and Eagles have not played one another since July 5th of 2022, where Notre Dame handled business and won 11-1 in the second round of postseason play.
A couple of players from that previous matchup still linger on their respective teams, including Notre Dame’s Landry Haberichter, who finished 3 for 3 with a double and three RBIs in their previous matchup.
Both teams are incredibly young with Keota starting four underclassmen and only two seniors on a consistent basis. Notre Dame has seven 8th graders on the roster with one starting in Garrison Reid, who is batting 0.263 for the year. Still, this team has a roster with state tournament experience.
Notre Dame Player to Watch: Eli Oleson (0.413 batting average with three home runs and 25 RBIs)
Keota Player to Watch: Blake Baker (0.488 batting average with 16 RBIs)
The nightcap will pit New London against Wapello at 7 pm in front of the Tiger fateful. New London has owned this series since 2008 against their SEISC-North counterpart, collecting an 11-3 record during this span.
In fact, New London has won the past seven games against Wapello, outscoring them 44 to 1 in the last four showdowns, including a 10-0 no-hitter performance by Own Nehring on the mound in five innings of work. Tate Welcher knocked home three runs as he slapped a triple in the contest.
Wapello’s lone win of the season involved a walk-off 5-4 win over Lone Tree and a Herculean effort by Wyatt Marlette on the mound, going seven innings and striking out seven. Wapello has scored five runs in one other game and just 18 total runs on the season.
New London has had a flair for the dramatics with nine of their 17 games being decided by two runs or less, including a stretch of six games in a row. Most importantly, they are 6-3 in such games. Clutch is an awfully hard thing to teach a team.
The winner between Notre Dame and Keota and New London and Wapello will face off on July 8th at 7 pm.
KILJ will most likely be covering both games of the July 5th doubleheader in New London.
New London Player to Watch: Memphis Watson (0.527 batting average with 17 RBIs and a 3.26 ERA)
Wapello Player to Watch: Wyatt Marlette (five RBIs and a 5.47 ERA)
Looking at the other matchups in Substate 5, Sigourney possesses the top seed of the grouping as they look to supplement their first state tournament appearance last year with their second consecutive state berth this year. Consequently, they earned a bye.
Sigourney will play the winner of Montezuma and Lone Tree. On the bottom half of the bracket, Highland will host the contests with Hillcrest Academy starting the night at 5 pm followed by the Huskies taking on English Valleys at 7 pm.
Class 2A
Jumping up to Class 2A Substate 4, #6 Mediapolis grabbed the top-seed and a first-round bye, accelerating their postseason journey to the District 7 semifinals. The Bulldogs will also get to enjoy home-field advantage when the winner of West Liberty versus Camanche comes to town at 7 pm on July 8th.
Mediapolis has been considered a powerhouse for Southeast Iowa having lost one game this season. A team that was a win away from state a year ago is hitting better and pitching better poses a lot of confidence. Their most impressive win of the year was a 4-3 scraper against Class 1A’s #10 Don Bosco in late May.
However, if we were to fast forward to a possible Substate championship meet up for Mediapolis, they would have to get past #10 Beckman Catholic, their only loss of the season and an ugly loss at that in a 13-3 shellacking.
Still, all nine of the Bulldog starts has tallied double-digit RBIs and Lance Ludens is having quite the swan song for the Bulldogs with a 0.500 average at the plate and a 1.79 ERA on the mound. Another player to watch would be junior Kyler Crow, as he touts a 1.09 ERA and 42 strikeouts in his 32 innings on the mound.
Other matchups: Durant versus Tipton. The winner will play Northeast at 5 pm on July 8th in Mediapolis. In District 8, Clayton Ridge will take on Waukon with the winner advancing to Beckman Catholic, while Marquette Catholic will await the winner between MFL MarMac and Postville.
Substate 5
District 9 will house three of our local squads, although there will no guarantee that any of them meet.
On July 5th, Wilton High School will get to host the two matchups with a battle of the Falcons leading off the night with West Burlington competing against Louisa-Muscatine and getting to act as the home team.
The pair played early in the season where small ball got West Burlington their win with 10 singles leading to 7-5 win. Brock Thuleen went 3 for 4 with an RBI in the win but it has been Garret Bence who was able to hit home the run with three RBIs in the contest. Louisa-Muscatine tried the same thing but managed only seven singles.
If we are to use history, it favors West Burlington with a 7-3 record in their last 10 matchups. Both teams have a penchant to give up runs (7.6 for Louisa-Muscatine and 5.6 for West Burlington) but the Green and White Falcons possess 7.7 runs per game, three runs more than Louisa-Muscatine.
The winner will advance to contend with Chariton on July 8th at 7 pm.
West Burlington Player to Watch: Brock Thuleen (0.548 batting average, two home runs and 14 RBIs)
Louisa-Muscatine Player to Watch: Owen Klocksiem (3.10 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 29.1 innings pitched)
The other matchup in Wilton pits the hosts against Winfield-Mt. Union, who co-ops with Columbus, at 7 pm. The Beavers and Wolves have not met before, so a quick glance at Wilton’s schedule reveals a 1-1 record against the SEI Super Conference, blasting Wapello 16-0 and getting trounced by Mediapolis 13-0.
Compare that to Winfield-Mt. Union this year and the Wolves handled Wapello 11-2 and loss handily to Mediapolis 11-1. Despite entering with a record below 0.500, the Wolves are much better than that suggests.
This season has been an unlucky one more than anything with six of their games being decided by three runs or less and (un)amazingly the Wolves are 0-6 in such games this season. If they even split those contests, then a 6-7, at the time of writing, record appears healthier and more akin to the truth.
The winner will travel to Chariton to take on Central Lee, who earned a bye, at 5 pm.
Winfield-Mt. Union Player to Watch: Riley Kaalberg (0.450 batting average, two home runs, and 12 RBIs along with a 4.04 ERA)
Wilton Player to Watch: Ben Garvin (0.432 batting average with 10 RBIs and an 0.88 ERA)
Over in District 10: Albia and Central Decatur will play with the winner to face off against Interstate 35. Cardinal will await the winner between Davis County and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.
Up Next
Class 3A and Class 4A postseason brackets will be released some time this week by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.