Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Following a long weekend in Waukee and a late night on Tuesday at Cedar Rapids Prairie seventh-ranked City High wasn’t always razor sharp in its cross-town clash with West High on Wednesday.

Even at a little less than 100 percent energy the Little Hawks looked pretty impressive on Wednesday evening.

City High hammered 30 hits in a pair of wins over West High winning the opener 15-4 in six innings and taking the nightcap 9-1 to stretch its winning streak to 11 in a row.

“We really had to grind Saturday at Waukee and last night we were late and I think we were a little mentally tired tonight,” City High coach Jeff Koenig said. “I just felt like we weren’t just quite focused tonight and we were a little tired but we said we are going to go out and get a couple wins and we were still able to do that.”

City High posted wins over 5A ranked opponents Waukee and Southeast Polk on Saturday and survived a weather-delayed doubleheader at Prairie on Tuesday that didn’t end until after 11 p.m.

None of that slowed down a City High on Wednesday as the Little Hawks homered four times and had 10 extra-base hits while improving to 19-5 on the season and 16-4 in Mississippi Valley Conference contests.

West High dropped to 7-18 and 5-15 in conference play.

“Tonight I don’t think we played as well as we could have but at the end of the day we got two wins,” City High senior Ella Cook said. “A win is a win and it might have been a little ugly at times but two wins we are always happy with that.”

Cook saw two pitches in the opener, hitting both over the left center field fence for home runs as City High jumped to a 10-0 lead two innings in.

After tossing a scoreless first inning Cook gave City High a 4-0 in the bottom of the inning when the senior cleanup hitter launched a towering drive to left field for a grand slam.

“She had thrown first pitch strikes to a lot of our batters so I went up looking for my pitch,” Cook said. “She threw it right there and that was exciting that I was able to jump on that one and really break it open.”

Avi Lindsey and Elyse Rios each had RBI singles as City High sent 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run first inning.

Cook made it 9-0 in the second inning when she lined the first pitch of her second at bat over the fence in left field for a two-run home run.

“I didn’t think that one was going out,” Cook said. “I saw it went out and I was really happy. That felt good.”

West High cut the lead down to 10-4 with a three-run fifth inning that was aided by a City High error and fueled by an RBI single by Maddie Caylor.

City High responded with five runs in the bottom of the sixth with senior Carey Koenig ending the game via 10-run rule with a two-run homer to left center.

With the sweep on Wednesday the seniors on the City High roster remained unbeaten in their careers against West High.

City High has now won 11 straight in the series dating back to a sweep in 2017.

“It’s a cross-town rival and we get excited to play all those games against Liberty or West,” Koenig said. “Those games are always exciting and something we look forward to.”

West High would go without a fight.

The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning of the nightcap when Caylor drove in Ella Nelson with a two-out RBI single to center field.

Again City High responded by flexing its offensive muscle.

Rios tripled and Ayana Lindsey and Koenig each had doubles in a two-run Little Hawk fourth.

City High took control in the fifth as Makayla Ribble led off with a solo shot to left and Koeig following with an RBI single and Cook had an RBI double to stretch the lead to 5-1.

“Our energy was just not there and we have now energy it definitely shows on the field and we aren’t able to string those hits together,” Koenig said. “We just left a lot of runners on base and I just told our girls to stay calm and just get hits. We just needed one hit here or there.”

Lianna Hull had a two-run double in the sixth as City High added on to its lead.

The first three innings we didn’t have a single run and I challenged them to get more focused and get more energy,” Koenig said. “When our energy went up we scored nine runs in three innings.”

Lindsey earned the win in game two allowing just one unearned run on two hits while striking out 13 in a complete game.

Game 1

West High                  001  030  –   4    7   1

City High                     730  005  –  15  15  3

W – Ella Cook                        L – Alina Davis

2B – ICH: Elyse Rios. ICW: Rylee Goodfellow

HR – ICH: Ella Cook (2), Carey Koenig.

Game 2

West High                  000  100  0  –  1   1   0

City High                    000  234  x  –  9  15  1

W – Ayana Lindsey                L – Max Pech

2B – ICH: Cynthia Hull, Ayana Lindsey, Carey Koenig, Ella Cook

3B – ICH: Elyse Rios

HR – ICH: Makayla Ribble

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