Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports 

IOWA CITY – Ranking towards the top of Class 4A in hits, runs, batting average and just about every other offensive statistical category West High has boasted one of the most potent lineups in the state this season. 

All that offensive production has come with sophomore slugger Jason Strunk stuck in a power slump. 

The good news for fourth-ranked West High and bad news for the rest of Class 4A is that Strunk was back to hammering the baseball on Thursday night. 

Strunk went 4-for-5 with a double and a home run to lift West High to a sweep of Cedar Rapids Kennedy (10-11, 7-9) in a Mississippi Valley Conference cross-divisional doubleheader at West High. 

“We've been waiting for Jason Strunk to get going all year and today it looked like Jason from last year,” West High coach Charlie Stumpff said. “If the pieces all come together we are pretty formidable.”

Strunk was a big piece of the offensive puzzle for West High last season when he hit .330 with 19 extra-base hits and drove in 38 runs as a freshman. 

This season Strunk has never gotten rolling the way he did a year ago, and entered Thursday with just two extra-base hits and five RBI. 

He doubled both of those totals against Kennedy ripping a home run down the left field line in a 12-2 West High win in the opener and adding a two-run double in a 10-2 win in the nightcap. 

“He was the Jason of old,” Stumpff said. “He was short to the ball, he was seeing the ball and if he barrells it up it's going to go. He had two extra base hits coming into the day and he probably doubled that and he literally had five RBI coming in and he doubled that.” 

Strunk went 3-for-3 in the opener and finished the doubleheader with six RBI as West High improved to 19-6 and 11-5 in MVC play with its eigth win in its last nine games. 

“I'm finally getting to the point where I feel comfortable,” Strunk said. “Tonight it felt just like last year.” 

Kennedy struck first with a first-inning run in both games but West High used a big inning in each game to take control. 

West High scored four runs in the first inning of the opener as the first three West High batters collected hits before Strunk slammed a two-run homer to left to make it 4-2. 

“I finally figured out my swing to not fall forward on the off-speed stuff like I had been,” Strunk said. “It felt good tonight.”

West High took control of the opener with seven runs in the fourth. 

The Trojans sent 13 batters to the plate and collected six hits in the inning while building an 11-2 lead. 

Braden Houston had an RBI double while Nate Disterhoft and Tony Comellas each had RBI singles in the inning and Strunk had a pair of hits in the seven-run fourth including a two-run single. 

 “I think our offense is finally starting to click as a whole,” Strunk said. “It's definitely a big confidence booster.” 

It was more of the same in the nightcap as West High broke open the game with an eight-run second inning in which it sent 12 batters to the plate. 

Strunk and Dane Randall each had two-run doubles in the eight-run explosion that also featured run-scoring doubles by Logan Sims and Jake Peterson and an RBI single by Connor McCaffery. 

“We knew Kennedy was going to be a good team, we knew getting on them early would make it a lot easier on our pitchers,” West High senior Izaya Ono-Fullard said. “We played a clean game and got a lot of hits and that was big for us.” 

Houston picked up the win for West High in game two while Comellas earned the win in the opener that was shortened to five innings by the run rule. 

West High had 18 hits in the doubleheader while scoring double digit runs for the fifth time in the past nine games. 

“We've played a little more crisp,” Stumpff said. “Maybe that's some of the team's that we've been playing. We've been a little more sharper, everything has just been a little better.” 

Game 1

CR Kennedy    101  00  –   2   4   0

West High       400  71  –  12  12  0 

W – Tony Comellas     L – Chandler Poell 

2B – ICW: Izaya Ono-Fullard (2), Connor McCaffery, Braden Houston. CRK: Matt Berst, Cairron Hendred 

HR – ICW: Jason Strunk. CRK: Matt Berst 

Game 2

CR Kennedy     100  100  0  –   2   6  2 

West High         080  000  2  –  10  5  1

W – Braden Houston     L – Nicholas McSpadden 

2B – Jason Strunk, Logan Sims, Dane Randall, Jake Peterson, Alex Granner. CRK: Zakary Packingham