Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – It might be hard to understand how a couple second-inning at-bats are consequential in a game that ends 11-1 in five innings. But strange things happen in high school baseball, particularly when a trip to state is on the line, and momentum can be as fickle as Iowa weather.

Iowa City West starter Braden Houston pitched out of a key jam in the second and catcher Tony Comellas hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second to help the Trojans seize momentum.

Connor McCaffrey’s two-run homer in the third inning sent them on their way to the 11-1 substate final victory over Davenport West Wednesday.

The Trojans (31-8) will play in the state quarterfinals at 5 p.m. at Principal Park in Des Moines next Wednesday against Cedar Rapids Washington (24-15). The Falcons ended their season at 22-15.

After a scoreless first inning, a single by Ryan McKowen and a double by Clayton Nettleton put runners at second and third with one out in the second inning.

“I was just trying to get a ground ball,” Houston said. “I was trying to stay in my zone. I knew a couple runs wasn’t going to affect our team because we can score a lot of runs. I wasn’t too worried, but it worked out in my favor.”

Houston struck out Alex Hunt for the second out on a high fastball.

Cale Warren worked the count to 3-2 but struck out looking as Houston dodged the threat.

“Braden’s changeup was working really well,” Comellas said. “He was lights out.”

“That was huge,” Trojan coach Charlie Stumpff said. “You understand momentum in baseball when you get that kind of stop. Then Tony jumped on the first pitch and we were off and running. That was probably the game right there.”

“That was crucial for our momentum,” Houston said. “We needed a zero on the board there, and then we needed to score and then Tony hit the homer and that helped a lot.”

Comellas led off the bottom of the second with a homer to left to give the Trojans the lead.

“It felt good; he threw me first-pitch fastball and I looked silly,” Comellas said. “Then I kind of knew he’d throw me something off-speed, and he hung it and I hit it out. I didn’t think it would go and then I saw it go out, and I was super happy.”

Izaya Ono-Fullard led off the bottom of the third inning and reached after being hit by a pitch. McCaffrey then smashed a homer to center to build the lead to 3-0. Lucas Karwal knocked in a fourth run with a single to center later in the inning..

“After my home run we got that little bit of separation, and we were going to be good. Braden’s thrown real well all year. He’s thrown in the clutch. He throws strikes. Braden pounds the zone. He’s got three pitches; he can throw them all for strikes. I knew he was going to get out of that and when he did I was kind of like ‘OK, let’s get the bats going.’”

McCaffrey had two hits and three RBIs.

“We were seeing a lot of good swings off a really talented pitcher,” Stumpff said, referring to Nettleton, the Falcon starter and an Iowa commit.

Ono-Fullard hit a grand slam in the fifth inning to end the game on the 10-run mercy rule. After a 30-minute lightning delay in the middle of the fifth inning the Falcons changed pitchers. Junior Michael Anfinson walked the bases full, and Ono-Fullard sliced a pitch over the right-field fence to end things.

The Trojans had 11 hits. Ono-Fullard had four RBIs and scored three runs. Comellas had two hits, scored two runs and had one RBI.

“The park was really lively today,” Stumpff said. “All the humidity. That’s 10 home runs for Z. Connor’s got seven; Tony’s got seven. That’s part of who we are.”

Davenport West         000  10  –  1  5  2

Iowa City West          013  34  –  11 10 1

No out when winning run scored

W – Braden Houston              L – Clayton Nettleton.

2B  – DW: Clayton Nettleton, Ryan McKowen, Noah McCreary.

HR – ICW: Tony Comellas, Connor McCaffrey, Izaya Ono-Fullard.