Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Wednesday’s doubleheader between City High and Liberty High will go down as a split.

However, this one certainly felt like a win to the Little Hawks.

City High rallied from a 10-0 five-inning loss in the opener for a 5-2 win in the nightcap to salvage the split with Class 5A seventh-ranked Liberty High on a rainy evening in North Liberty.

“The first game tonight we kicked the ball around some but then the second game we came out and I thought we played all three facets of the game well,” City High coach Jeff Koenig said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

City High got seven strong innings for junior pitcher Lance Grulke-Mangrich and a go-ahead two-run single from eighth-grader Eve Vitense while picking up its second win over a ranked team in three days.

The Little Hawks split a doubleheader with 4A ninth-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier on Monday and improved to 7-17 on the season with the game-two win on Wednesday.

“We are capable of so much more than any record says,” Grulke-Mangrich said. “We have so many incredibly talented girls that are dedicated to this and come ready to play every day and if we can make sure we keep things clean and get a spark on offense we can beat anyone.”

Liberty High (16-8) hammered 11 hits in four innings in a 10-0 win in the opener.

Brynlee Slockett, Kelsey Kaut and Kennedy Connor all had multi-hit games in the opener and Ava Tague drove in four runs.

It was more of the same early in game two as the Lightning jumped to a 2-0 lead on an RBI double by Tague in the bottom of the third inning.

After being held scoreless for the first 11 innings on Wednesday City High scored five runs in the final two innings to pull out the game-two win.

Vitense snapped a 2-2 tie with a two-run single through the right side in a four-run City High sixth inning.

Sophomore Molly Carlson made it a 5-2 Little Hawk lead with her team-leading eighth home run, a solo shot to left center field in the seventh.

“Eve Vitense came through with a huge hit, if she doesn’t have that hit we might be playing extra innings right now,” Koenig said. “Molly gave us a little insurance and our defense was great and we know what we are capable of.

Xavier is ranked team in 4A, these guys are seventh in 5A and this is what we are capable of on any given night.”

The four-run City High sixth inning started with a walk to leadoff hitter Lianna Hull and Maeve Obermueller followed with a single.

Carlson reached on an error and Avy Lindsay plated the first run on the night for City High with a sacrifice fly.

Obermueller scored on a Mackenzie Dvorsky ground ball before Vitense drove a 2-1 pitch through the right side of the infield for a two-run single.

“I was just trying to get a base hit,” Vitense said. “I wanted to hit something to the outfield to get a run in, I didn’t really need to get on base but that was just a plus.”

That was enough support for Grulke-Mangrich as the junior right-hander limited a potent Liberty High lineup to two runs on 10 hits while striking out five without issuing a walk.

“My rise ball was working pretty good especially early in the game,” Grulke-Mangrich said. “My drop ball has had a bit of a curve recent and that helped and got a couple girls on my changeup so pretty much everything was working for me.”

Kelsey Kaut had three hits for Liberty High in the nightcap and Mischa Reiners and Tague each had two but the Lightning produced just two runs on their 10 hits.

“I think we got complacent, I think we settled,” Liberty High coach Hannah Cole said. “When you 10-run a team in the first game the common mentality is you are going to do it game two and we settled in and we weren’t as prepared as we should have been and then when we got two runs we were satisfied with that and in the game we play we can’t be satisfied with two runs.”

Game 1

City High                   000  00  –   0    1   2

Liberty High             360  1x  –  10  11  1   

W – Ellie Tague                                  L – Sophie Price

2B – ICL: Ava Tague (2), Lanie Meyer

3B – ICL: Brynlee Slockett, Haley Schroeder

Game 2

City High                   000  004  1  –  5   5   1

Liberty High            002  000  0  –  2  10  2           

W – Lance Grulke-Mangrich             L – Addyson McKillip

2B – ICL: Ava Tague (2). ICH: Avy Lindsay

HR – ICH: Molly Carlson

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