Sports, Saturday, July 25th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Notre Dame Eyes Trip to State Semis, Takes On Remsen St. Mary’s:

The senior laden Notre Dame Nike baseball team is all systems go ahead of their first trip to the State Baseball Tournament since 2002, clinching their berth Wednesday night with a 7-5 win over upset-minded North Cedar.

The Nikes, 14-2, are the lone unranked team in the Class 1A state field, entering as the #7 seed.

Today they’ll take on 19-0 Remsen St. Mary’s in a quarterfinal matchup at 1:30 p.m.

They’ll look to join Kingsley-Pierson as schools to upend top-ranked teams, after Kingsley-Pierson took down top ranked Martensdale-St. Mary’s yesterday morning.

The Nikes are led by a terrific senior class highlighted by right-handed arms Mitchell Brent and Jeron Connor and infielder Drew Chiprez.

Chiprez went scorched earth on Southeast Iowa Super Conference pitching this year, hitting .545 with seven home runs, 25 runs batted in and 27 runs scored.

Brent finished this year on the hill with an ERA of 2.66 with 39 strikeouts in 23.2 innings, while Connor threw 21.2 innings with a 1.62 ERA and 34 strikeouts.

As a team Notre Dame hit .395 this year averaging north of 10 runs per game.

They’ll need all the firepower they can gather as they get set to face either Carter Schorg, Blaine Harpenau or Jaxon Bunkers.

Schorg finished 5-0 for Remsen, he did not allow an earned run all year in 26.2 innings, while striking out 37.

Harpenau went 7-0, logging a team-high 43.2 innings with a microscopic 0.16 ERA. He’s fanned a remarkable 88 hitters in those 43 innings.

Bunkers, a freshman for Remsen, was 2-0 in 26 innings, yielding just five earned runs all season.

Remsen’s staff ERA is just 0.71 — so elite pitching will meet elite hitting.

Again, today’s game will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will be available on KILJ-FM and kilj.com.

Mount Pleasant Baseball Piles Up Accolades:

The Mount Pleasant baseball team had six 1st Team All-Conference selections as announced by the league today:

  • P Nik Coble
  • P Jaxon Hoyle
  • INF Clayton Lowery
  • OF Rylan Seberg
  • OF Chase Williamson
  • DH Brennen Bender

Shortstop Corbin Broeker was 2nd Team All-SEC choice, as well.

INF Jack Johnson and C Dalton Gardner were both Honorable Mention selections.

The Panther finished this year 15-7 and conference champions of the Southeast Conference before falling in Monday’s Substate 5 semifinal to Davenport Assumption, 9-5.

IHSAA Approves Changes to Football Schedule:

The Iowa High School Athletic Association has announced several notable changes to their fall football schedule.

First practice (August 10) and first competition (August 27) dates are currently unchanged in this revision, as are the weeks for state semifinals (November 13-15) and finals (November 20-21).

This revised plan was approved by the Board of Control on Friday.

The IHSAA plans to release further fall season and sport-specific guidance next week. Team schedules will be compiled and released when available.

A seven-week regular season will be conducted. Teams will have the option of scheduling five, six, or seven games within those seven weeks.

All teams in all classes will qualify for the postseason. Brackets will consist of six rounds for each classification.

The IHSAA will determine postseason pairings with geography, quality, and team availability as primary considerations. This is intended to be a one-time measure for postseason formatting.

Week’s 1 and 2 of this iteration will be optional game dates.

Opponents, locations, and participation may determined by member schools in 11-player football.

MLB Scoreboard (7/24)

New York Mets 1, Atlanta 0

Cincinnati 7, Detroit 1

Toronto 6, Tampa Bay 4

Miami 5, Philadelphia 2

Chicago Cubs 3, Milwaukee 0

Cleveland 2, Kansas City 0

Boston 13, Baltimore 2

Texas 1, Colorado 0

Minnesota 10, Chicago White Sox 5

St. Louis 5, Pittsburgh 4

Houston 8, Seattle 2

Los Angeles Dodgers 9, San Francisco 1

San Diego 7, Arizona 2