Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High has won a lot of games over the past several seasons due to its ability to hit home runs.

On Thursday it was the long ball that ended the season for the Little Hawks.

Waterloo West slugged three home runs to rally from an early deficit on its way to 5-3 win over City High in a Class 5A, Region 7 quarterfinal in Iowa City.

Leadoff hitter Francesca Dehl homered twice and Jocelyn Syharath added a homer as Waterloo West (12-20) advanced to the Region 7 semifinal on Saturday at 7 p.m. at ninth-ranked Ankeny (19-20).

City High closed the season 14-23.

“If coming into this game you would have told me one team is going to hit three home runs I would have said we are hitting three and that gives us a good shot to win the game,” City High coach Jeff Koenig said. “Tonight that team that doesn’t hit a lot of home runs, we left some balls where we didn’t want to leave them and they attacked when they could attack.”

City High homered five times in a doubleheader split at Waterloo West on June 11 and ranked eighth in 5A with 25 home runs this season.

Waterloo West entered the postseason with nine home runs on the year and Dehl and Jocelyn Syharath had each homered once.

The WaHawks flexed their muscle on Thursday.

Dehl tied the game with a solo home run in the top of the third and then gave Waterloo West its first lead with a two-run homer in the fifth that just narrowly cleared the left field fence.

“It was one of those nights,” Koenig said. “Softball is a funny game, there are times you think you have everything put together and tonight we just didn’t have everything put together.”

City High took an early 1-0 lead when Avy Lindsey led off the second inning with a single and scored on an RBI single by eighth-grader Eve Vitense.

After Dehl evened the game The Little Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the third when Lianna Hull singled with one out and scored on a Molly Carlson RBI double.

Waterloo West pitcher Jersey Van Erem shut the Little Hawks down the rest of the way.

Van Erem allowed three runs on seven hits but gave up just three hits and a single run over the final four innings.

“We just could not figure that pitcher out,” Koenig said. “She just kept it off speed enough that we were out on our front foot.

City High cut the lead to 5-3 when Carlson singled and scored on an RBI groundout by Mackenzie Dvorsky in the sixth inning but could get no closer.

Vitense had a leadoff single in the seventh but that is all Van Erem would allow.

The loss ended a strong finish to the season for City High which had won four of its last five games and seven of 11 to end the regular season.

“The last 11 games we were 7-4, we had 14 wins this year and eight of them were against ranked teams and some of those teams will show up in Fort Dodge,” Koenig said. “We beat some of the better teams in the state. It was just one of those seasons where there were nights we couldn’t lock everything in and nights we showed up and everything was locked in.”

Vitense, Carlson and Hull all had two hits for the Little Hawks on Thursday while Lindsey had a hit and scored a run.

Waterloo West          001  031  0  –  5  10  1

City High                   011  001  0  –  3   7   2     

W – Jersey Van Erem                         L – Lance Grulke-Mangrich

2B – ICH: Molly Carlson, Lianna Hull. WW: Sydnie Wass

3B – WW: Emma Beckman

HR – WW: Francesca Dehl (2), Jocelyn Syharath

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