Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The West High baseball team showed off its power just in time before Mother Nature did the same thing on Monday.

West High belted three home runs and defeated Dubuque Senior 7-5 in the second game of a doubleheader that was stopped after five innings because of the threat of lightning. The game eventually was called after it started raining.

The Trojans also won the first game 5-0 as pitchers Connor McCaffery and Austin West combined for a two-hit shutout at West.

West High improved to 27-7 overall and clinched at least a tie for the Mississippi Valley Conference title with a 19-5 mark in conference play.

“It’s really difficult to get that,” West coach Charlie Stumpff said of winning a conference title. “So we appreciate that. It’s a hard league. It’s a hard game.

“We think we’re really good, but we can lose to anybody on any given day. So to make it work, that’s just one of those things you check off, and we’re real proud of it.”

West High was in danger of losing the first game until it erupted for four runs in the sixth innings on four hits, including a run-scoring double by sophomore left fielder Jason Strunk.

McCaffery pitched the first four innings in the first game and surrendered just one hit to go along with four strikeouts. The future University of Iowa baseball and basketball player also drove in West High’s first run in the first game with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Stumpff said he replaced McCaffery after four innings because he wanted to limit McCaffery’s pitch count.

Stumpff also has confidence in his bullpen, and was rewarded for it as West pitched three scoreless innings in relief.

“The pitch count gets up there and he starts getting in the seventies and eighties and the strike zone was kind of floating around on him,” Stumpff said of McCaffery. “And we really get dependent on Austin, he’ so consistent.

“So we’ve got him, let’s run with him. He’s been really good.”

After riding its pitching in the first game, West High used a power surge at the plate to prevail in the second game.

Strunk stayed hot by pounding a two-run home run in the first inning that sailed well beyond the fence in left field.

Junior Tony Comellas hit a home run in the fourth inning and senior third baseman Izaya Ono-Fullard followed with a two-run blast in the fifth that broke a 5-5 tie and proved to be the game-winning hit.

“I think a lot of us are doing really good right now,” Ono-Fullard said.

Ono-Fullard hit the ball hard throughout the doubleheader, but didn’t have much to show for it before going long distance.

“All game I thought I was seeing pitches well,” he said. “I finally just got a piece of one.”

Ono-Fullard already was dealing with a tender ankle when he entered Monday’s doubleheader. He then felt pain in his knee after fielding a ground ball in the first inning of game one.

“We were playing soccer on Saturday for conditioning and I rolled my ankle,” Ono-Fullard said. “So it’s been bothering me a little bit. I’ve been icing it a lot and trying to get it better.

“And then in the first game, I hyper-extended my knee. So I’m a little banged up. But I played through it.”

Being on the right side of a doubleheader sweep makes the pain easier to tolerate.

West High has won 11 of its last 12 games and is peaking at the right time with the Class 4A playoffs barely one week away. The Trojans have finished runner-up in each of the past three state tournaments.

“It’s a full team, so it’s been different guys,” Stumpff said. “(Izaya) has been hot all year. Then now Strunk has gotten real hot. Man, he’s just been scalding. So that really helps out.”

Game 1

Dubuque Senior        000  000  0  –  0  2  1

West High                  001  004  x  –  5  8  2

T.J. Deardorff, Carter Stevens (6) Trevor Fuller; Connor McCaffery, Austin West (5) and Tony Comellas

W – Connor McCaffery          L – T.J. Deardorff.  

2B – ICW: Jason Strunk

Game 2

Dubuque Senior        103  01  –  5  6  1

West High                  210  22  –  7  8  1

Logan Oberfoll, Erik Edminster (5) and Trevor Fuller; Connor Greer, Ty Bopp (4) and Lucas Karwal.

W – Ty Bopp                          L – Erik Edminster

HR – ICW: Jason Strunk, Tony Comellas, Izaya Ono-Fullard