Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Preseason polls and internal expectations had Regina pegged as one of the top teams in Class 2A.

Two games into the season the Regals certainly look worthy of that claim.

Class 2A second-ranked Regina scored in each of the first five innings and pounded 12 hits in an 10-3 win over City High on Tuesday in a non-conference matchup of eastside rivals at Mercer Park.

The win was the second straight to open the season for Regina which downed Mount Pleasant 11-1 on Monday.

“This group is bought into what we are trying to do and the focus is there,” Regina coach Jeff Pacha said. “They are picking up on what we’ve been trying to do now for two or three years and kind of taking it upon themselves and it’s been really fun to watch.”

After hammering 15 hits in their season opener on Monday the Regals were equally impressive on Tuesday against City High (1-2).

Regina never trailed against the Little Hawks, scoring a run in each of the first four innings before busting the game open with a four-run fourth.

The win snapped a three-game losing skid to City High and was the first for Regina in the series since an 8-1 victory in 2014.

“We dropped a couple of games to them freshman, sophomore and junior year so we really wanted to get this one,” Hoogerwerf said. “It feels good to finally get on top.”

All nine Regina starters had a hit on Tuesday in support of senior Nick Brandt who tossed 6 1/3 strong innings to earn the win.

Brandt retired the final 10 batters he faced as Regina scored the final six runs to break open a 4-3 game.

“We see them all around town obviously and we play them in spring leagues and we are friends with a lot of them,” Brandt said. “I don’t know when the last time we beat them was, I know it was a while ago. I threw against them freshman year and they hit me hard so it feels good to come out and get a win against them.”

Regina scored single runs in the first four innings to take a 4-1 lead.

City High cut the lead to 4-3 with two runs in the fourth when Travis Reyhons and Liam McComas led off the inning with back-to-back singles and scored on RBI groundouts by Jacob Dykes and Zach Kuepker.

Regina didn’t wait long to break the game open.

Senior Mitch Gahan had the big blow in four-run Regina fifth, a towering three-run double that pushed the pushed the lead to 7-3.

“I had been getting a lot of first pitch sliders, off speed stuff so I was looking for a fastball,” Gahan said. “I knew that was probably the best pitch I was going to get that at bat so I just tried to jump on it and hoped it went far.”

That was all the offense that Brandt would need.

The senior right-hander didn’t allow a baserunner after the single by McComas in the fourth.

Brandt allowed three runs on four hits and struck out three without walking a batter.

“City High squared him up, that’s a good hitting team and right from pitching one they were on him but Nick did a really good job staying pitch to pitch,” Pacha said. “He gave up a couple of runs early and he could have easily melted and that’s the maturity he has from having pitched at the varsity level for four years now.”

Ryne Schooley, Hoogerwerf, Gahan and Ryan Schott all had two hits to lead a Regina attack that had double-digit hits and runs for the second straight game.

“One through nine we are solid hitting, I think our lineup can be a big strength for us,” Hoogerwerf said. “We had 30 hits in two games. We feel pretty good about that.”

Regina            111  140  2  –  10  12  1
City High        100  200  x  –   3    4   2

W – Nick Brandt        L – Quenton Max

2B – ICR: Blake Berns, Mitch Gahan, Trent Hoogerwerf  

3B – ICR: Ryan Schott