Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – For the second time in three seasons City High came up a win shy of a spot in the Class 4A championship.

Once again, it was West Des Moines Dowling that denied the Little Hawks a shot at a title.

Cole Southard tossed a complete game five-hitter to lift West Des Moines Dowling to a 5-1 win over third-ranked City High in a Class 4A state semifinal on Thursday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids.

The Maroons defeated City High 6-4 in the 2022 semifinals before falling to Johnston in the championship game.

West Des Moines Dowling, which defeated second-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes in the 4A quarterfinals on Tuesday will face top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy (35-4) in the title game on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“They came out of nowhere this year,” City High coach Brian Mitchell said. “We felt like we were in position here before and it was very reminiscent of that all of a sudden you think you have what you think you want on the mound and it just didn’t work out for us. They just executed better than we did.”

City High managed just five hits off Southard, who struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter while improving to 4-2 on the season.

The senior right-hander retired 10 of the final 13 batters he faced allowing just Max Waldschmidt single and a two hit by pitches over the final three innings.

“He had a lot of confidence out there, he was owning the mound and we were not ready in the box,” City High senior Jake Mitchell said. “You have to give him a lot of credit for going out there and competing.”

Dowling gave Southand an early lead with a pair of runs on four hits in the second inning.

Max Shelton led off the inning with a single and after a single by Dylan Webb junior Jack Barrett and eighth-place hitter Parker DePhillips each had RBI singles.

“I was just trying to fill up the strike zone and let my guys make plays behind me,” Southard said. “It all worked out.”

City High got a run back in the third when Talon Young led off with a single to center and Ethan Nace followed with a bunt single.

Jake Mitchell had an RBI single to cut the lead to 2-1.

Dowling answered right back with three runs on four hits in the top of the fourth.

Nick Frerichs and Joey Nahas each had RBI singles in the three-run Maroon fourth.

“I’ve had these kids and been around a part of their lives for a long time and to see that come to an end is pretty tough,” Brian Mitchell said. “It was just not what we were looking for today.”

City High stranded seven runners on Thursday and was just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and 2-for-11 with runners on base.

“We didn’t execute in a couple of situations,” Brian Mitchell said. “It’s kind of been a theme a little bit where we had runners in scoring position and didn’t have the hits when we needed them.”

Three City High pitchers combined to work 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief after junior standout Talon Young allowed five runs on eight hits in 3 1/3.

Senior Johannes Boevers struck out three and allowed one hit in two scoreless innings and Owen Hicks worked a scoreless seventh.

“I was just trying to have a mindset of throwing every pitch like it was my last,” Boevers said. “I wanted to throw everything hard, throw well and have a performance I could be proud of.”

The loss ended a third consecutive 30-win season for City High which was making its third consecutive state tournament appearance and fourth in the past five seasons.

“It hurts just because of how hard we worked,” Jake Mitchell said. “Our goal was a state title from day one so coming up short really hurts. We worked really hard.”

West Des Moines Dowling               020  300  0  –  5  9  1 

City High                                           001  000  0  –  1  5  0

W – Cole Southard                            L – Talon Young

2B – WDD: Max Shelton

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