Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Charlie Stumpff has been around his group of seniors long enough to know it wasn’t over.

Facing an early five-run deficit against the second-ranked team in the state Stumpff believed his West High team was still in it.

He was right the Trojans just didn’t have quite enough.

West High scratched and clawed after falling into an early 5-0 hole but could never pull even, falling to second-ranked West Des Moines Dowling 8-3 in the Class 4A semifinals on Friday at Principal Park in Des Moines.

“We knew we were still in it and we knew we would be in it all the way,” Stumpff said. “We would rather not have gotten that far behind but I knew we would still be in it.”  

 

Colin Lacey tossed a complete game, holding off a late West High push to send Dowling (36-8) back to the 4A title game for the first time since the Maroons won the 2011 title.

West High had a string of three consecutive title game appearances end with the loss and finished the season 32-9.

“I love all these guys, playing with them the last three years is probably the most fun I have ever had,” West High senior Izaya Ono-Fullard said. “We really wanted to win one for coach Stumpff and all these other seniors so it’s tough.

Dowling will face the winner of the second semifinal between Waukee and top-ranked Johnston at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in the first all-CIML 4A title game since 2012.

“I’ve never been there at the end of the big tournaments,” Lacey said. “We lost last year so being able to come back and bounce back and really show the state that we are the best would be just absolute wonderful feeling.”

The loss ends an impressive string for the nine-member West High senior class that won 101 games and reached the state tournament each of the past three seasons.

Ono-Fullard, Connor McCaffery, Nate Disterhoft and Logan Sims were all part of that senior class that reached the state semifinals three straight seasons and played for two titles.

“The program was already in a great spot to start with I think we just kind of continued on what was going on here,” McCaffery said. “I won a lot of games here, it was a great run.”

The final score doesn’t indicate just how close West High was on Friday.

West High trailed 5-3 and had the tying run 180 feet away in the sixth inning when Dowling right fielder Peyton Krugler made a running snag of a Lucas Karwal line drive down the right field line.

“Their guy was throwing real well but Izaya and Connor did good work of re-grouping the guys and we were in it,” Stumpff said. “Second and third in the sixth we were there.”

The catch by Krugler thwarted the West High rally and Dowling put the game out of reach with three runs in the bottom of the inning with the big blow a two-out, wo-run single by senior catcher Lyle Fini.

“The way we hit we still feel like we are in it no matter what the score is because we can string together runs,” Sims said. “We just didn’t have it today.”

Dowling jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back singles by Robbie McCarger and Fini.

The Maroons pushed the margin to 5-0 with a three-run third that featured a two-out, two-run single by ninth place hitter Noah Gyldenvand.

It appeared that would be plenty for Lacey who retired the first 10 hitters he faced and didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning when Sims lined a one-out single into the left center field gap.

Sims scored on a Dowling error in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-1 but Lacey retired the next two hitters to escape the jam.

“He was hitting his spots pretty well and his curveball door was working,” Sims said of Lacey. “We just weren’t hitting it.”

West High got back in the game in the sixth.

Disterhoft led off the inning with a walk and scored on an opposite field double by McCaffery.

Back-to-back singles by Jason Strunk and Tony Comellas cut the lead to 5-3 and put two runners on with one out.

Lacey escaped the inning with a two-run lead still intact as he caught Sims looking at a breaking ball and Krugler tracked down Karwal’s liner down the right field line.

“The first thing that went through my head was a not a good word,” Lacey said when asked what he was thinking after Karwal’s flyball left the bat. “I was a little nervous, I thought ‘oh man did I just tie the game up’ but then I realized we have a great offense and he made that catch.”

Lacey, a senior left-hander, allowed three runs on four hits and struck out five while improving to 8-0 on the season.

The performance came against a West High lineup that had scored double digit runs in its three previous postseason games and entered leading 4A in runs and batting average.

“He pitched a great game,” Ono-Fullard said. “Props to him, he shut us down and not many pitchers in the state have done that.”

Class 4A Semifinals

West High                  000  012  0  –  3   4  1

WDM Dowling            203  003  0  –  8  10  1

W – Colin Lacey                     L – Jack Wilson

2B – ICW: Connor McCaffery. WDD: Robbie McCarger

3B – ICW: Logan Sims.