City High Pounds Cedar Rapids Kennedy 11-3 in Class 4A Substate Opener
Pat Harty
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – Besides winning, Sam Lewers had three primary objectives heading into Friday’s Class 4A sub-state game against Cedar Rapids Kennedy, and he accomplished all three.
He wanted to avoid swinging at pitches out of the strike zone.
He wanted to turn pitches in the strike zone into base hits.
And he wanted to avoid making any errors.
Lewers collected three hits, including a two-run double in the first inning that bounced off the right field fence, and was flawless on defense at third base as the Little Hawks pounded Cedar Rapids Kennedy 11-3 at Mercer Park.
“We just have to keep playing clean baseball,” Lewers said. “We’ve struggled with errors in the past, but we’re doing better now.
“And our coaches talk a lot about approaches at the plate. So we just have to keep squaring at strikes and taking balls and making plays.”
City High improved to 23-17 on the season and will face Waterloo West at 7 p.m. on Monday in a Class 4A sub-state semifinal at Mercer Park. Waterloo West advanced to the next round by upsetting Southeast Polk on Friday.
Kennedy lost 13 of its last 14 games and finished the season with a 13-25 record.
Kennedy struck first on Friday by scoring one run in the top of the first inning on just one hit. The Cougars took advantage of two walks and one hit batter by Little Hawk starting pitcher Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand.
The lead didn’t last long, though, as City High answered with five runs in the bottom of the first inning, highlighted by Lewers’ two-run double that just missed being his first home run of the season.
Lewers thought briefly that he might have hit a home run.
“Maybe for a second, but I got a little too far under it,” he said.
Threlkeld-Wiegand settled down after a rocky first inning and allowed no runs or hits in the second and third innings.
He was replaced on the mound by Brady Herzic with one out in the fourth inning. Herzic then pitched into the seventh inning before being replaced by Jacob Dykes with two outs.
Dykes then got Kennedy catcher Lane Thole to fly out to center field on just one pitch for the final out.
“Nerves definitely got to us right away, you could see that,” said City High coach Brian Mitchell. “And I think that got to Ry, and it was really good for him to work through that and have the opportunity there because we’re going to need him. If we’re going to make a run at state we’re going to definitely need him.
“And Brady came in and did a great job. And then offensively we were pretty good, and we expected to be.”
The Little Hawks were pretty good on defense, too, committing no errors.
City High’s infield has benefitted from some defensive switches that occurred about 15 games ago. Lewers moved from second base to third base. Senior Travis Reyhons moved from shortstop to second base, while senior Quenton Max moved from second base to shortstop.
“It’s been great,” Mitchell said of the position switches. “Q has been phenomenal at shortstop.”
Mitchell also likes having Reyhons at second base.
It’s just a better fit for him,” Mitchell said. “He’s done a really good at second as well. It takes some pressure off him and lets him play a little more free.”
Lewers made several nifty defensive plays at third base on Friday, including catching a line drive that led to a double play when he beat the base runner to the bag for a force out.
“At first, I struggled over there, but I’ve been practicing a lot and I like it now,” Lewers said. “It’s getting better.”
City pounded 13 hits, while holding the Cougars to just three hits.
In addition to getting the final out on the mound, Dykes reached base all four times for City High with three singles and a walk. The state champion wrestler also scored two runs and drove in two runs.
“We expected to swing it well tonight, but you don’t know in this environment,” Mitchell said. “
Friday’s game had just ended a few minutes earlier when the City High players started hearing that Waterloo West had upset Southeast Polk.
But it still hadn’t been confirmed when Dykes turned to his teammates and said:
“It doesn’t matter who we play, all we have to do is just keeping winning.”
Cedar Rapids Kennedy 100 200 0 – 3 3 2
City High 510 302 x – 11 13 0
Clayton DeBrower, Austin Burkhart (2), Nolan Behn (3) and Lane Thole; Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand, Brady Herzic (4), Jacob Dykes (7) and Liam McComas
W – Brady Herzic L – Clayton DeBrower
2B – ICH: Sam Lewars