Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Coming off back-to-back state tournament appearances and featuring a lineup with six senior starters Cedar Rapids Washington was the playoff-seasoned team in Friday’s Class 4A, Substate 7 quarterfinal.

It was youthful Liberty High that played like postseason veterans with the game on the line.

In its first ever 4A postseason appearance Liberty High needed two rallies and nine innings to edge 12-win Cedar Rapids Washington 8-7 on a steamy night at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids.

“They are a group of seniors that has been through the battles and we knew it was going to be tough,” Liberty High coach Tom Cronk said. “We knew (Mick) McCurry had really good stuff and I have watched Lincoln Riley play for a lot of years and he is just an awesome athlete so we knew we would have a fight and luckily we came out on top.”

Liberty High (23-17) dug out of an early three-run hole then overcame a 7-6 deficit in the seventh inning to secure its first 4A playoff win.

The Lightning will host West Des Moines Valley (16-18) on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Substate 7 semifinal.

Fourth-seeded Valley was a 10-2 winner over third seed Ottumwa on Friday.

“I’ve been through some battles but these kids really haven’t and for them to step up a class, I can not tell you how proud I am of this team,” Cronk said. “We started last year knowing this was going to happen and these guys have bought in and do the work and get it done and then they come out and make plays.”

Ethan O’Donnell homered and tossed two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win as Liberty High won its third straight game.

The substate win came one week after Liberty High swept Cedar Rapids Washington in a regular season doubleheader, winning both games in eight innings.

Friday’s postseason rematch was more of the same.

“We played them last week and it was eight innings back and forth,” Liberty High catcher Sam Funke said. “They have a good senior class and we knew it was going to be close. Record doesn’t really matter because it’s baseball and anything can happen and we knew we were going to see their best guy so we had to come in with the mentality to just get it done.”

Tyler Dahm returned to the Liberty High lineup for the first time in more than a month and immediately made an impact when he led off the game with a double and scored on a Nolan Frey RBI ground out.

Cedar Rapids Washington started the back-and-forth affair with four runs in the second and led 5-3 after pushing across a run in the top of the fourth.

O’Donnell provided a lift when he led off the bottom of the fourth with his first home run of the season, a towering shot to left field.

“My approach at the plate is just to barrel balls up, hit balls hard and good things are going to happen,” O’Donnell said. “That’s been my approach since I was a little kid, good things happen when you barrel balls up.”

Dahm had an RBI single in a three-run Lightning fourth that put Liberty High up 6-5.

It stayed 6-5 until the seventh when senior Matyk Hilton lined a two-run double to right field to give the Warriors a 7-6 lead.

Liberty High scored a run without a hit in the seventh to force extra innings as Alec Boldt drew a leadoff walk and pinch runner Cody Schroeder advanced to second on a balk and later scored on a Isaac Bender sacrifice fly.

“We got some luck, we got the guy to second when we shouldn’t have maybe and then the wild pitch gets him to third and all of a sudden we’ve got a chance,” Cronk said. “Our guys just come in and they do a good job of just competing.”

O’Donnell allowed the leadoff runner to reach in both the eighth and ninth innings but struck out Joe McKinstry looking to end the eighth and got Reid Ortiz swinging to end the ninth.

“I like the late-inning role,” O’Donnell said. “It proves who is mentally tough because it’s a battle out there especially in a one run game it’s just getting outs and who can get three outs.”

Liberty High didn’t need long to score the game-winner in the bottom of the ninth.

Funke was hit by a pitch, Bender reached on a bunt single and TJ Kimm was hit by a pitch before Ryan Nugent scored the winning run on a wild pitch.

“Last Friday we played them and both games went eight innings and we had to pull those out the same as we did tonight,” O’Donnell said. “I’m just glad we were able to do that tonight.”

Cedar Rapids Washington   040  100  200  –  7  7  1
Liberty High                              102  300  101  –  8  8  1

W – Ethan O’Donnell             L – Jabari Dobbs  

2B – ICL: Tyler Dahm, Jacob Norris. CRW: Matyk Hilton

3B – CRW: Joe McKinstry, Rimmy Nemickas

HR – ICL: Ethan O’Donnell

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