Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SIOUX CITY – The start to Tuesday’s Class 4A state quarterfinal wasn’t anything like what City High imagined.

Waukee jumped to an early lead on the Little Hawks with three runs in the top of the first inning.

The finish was exactly what City High expected.

Fourth-ranked City High scored five unanswered runs on its way to a 5-3 win over No. 10 Waukee in a 4A state quarterfinal at Lewis & Clark Park in Sioux City.

“We had confidence all the way through,” City High senior Drew Nye said. “We knew we could come back at any time we just had to get a few runs on the board at first.”

Nye smacked a two-run homer in the second inning and City High (31-9) scored three runs in bottom of the sixth while returning to the state semifinals for the second consecutive season.

City High will face Mississippi Valley Conference rival Cedar Rapids Prairie (30-9) in the 4A semifinals on Thursday at 5 p.m. Prairie defeated Johnston 6-0 in a quarterfinal on Tuesday.

“It’s just huge,” City High senior Jaxton Schroeder said. “Obviously you don’t want to end with a loss so we are just living to fight another day, I just love these guys and I’m so grateful for them. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Waukee (25-13) jumped on Schroeder early scoring three runs on three hits off the City High senior left-hander in the first inning.

The big blow in the Warrior first was a two-run double by center fielder Will Biggs.

City High quickly cut into the 3-0 lead when Schroeder singled with one out in the second and Nye followed with a towering two-run shot to left field.

“Drew Nye hitting that home, that’s what we were looking for, it changed everything momentum wise,” City High coach Brian Mitchell said. “We were not in a good place and to his credit he came up and put a good swing on it.”

Nye fouled off the first two pitches before blasting a Brayden Moore pitch over the left field fence for his first home run of the season.

“I was sitting slider right there and adjusting to a fastball knowing my hands could catch up,” Nye said. “I just let it go. I didn’t know it was out at first but Jaxton turned around and said, ‘you got it’.”

City High took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Schroeder tripled off the right field fence with one out and scored the tying run on a ground ball by Nye that got passed Waukee short stop Grant Sorensen.

“I was confident in myself, I knew I could get a hit, I believed we’d score if I got in anywhere on the ground,” Nye said. “That’s what I did, I hit it as hard as I could on the ground and got Jax home and that’s what we wanted.”

Pinch hitter Andrew Panzer reached on a throwing error following a sacrifice but that moved pinch runner Christopher Davis to third.

Davis scored on a wild pitch and Panzer on a Kendall Kurtz sacrifice fly to center field that made the score 5-3.

“That’s just baseball you have to grind,” Schroeder said. “Teams are going to score, they are going to put runs up and I think we have the ability to score a lot more runs than we have shown and obviously we have a great defense that is going to come through and shut them down for the rest of the game.”

Schroeder, who tossed a complete game shutout in a substate final win over Indianola last Wednesday, allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits while striking out five in 3 1/3 innings.

Senior right-hander Nick Meredith tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win.

“I always have confidence in our hitters,” Meredith said. “I knew if I went out and gave up zero that we were going to score runs.”

Meredith allowed just three hits and struck out one without a walk.

The senior escaped a first and third, one-out jam in the sixth when he picked a runner off first base and got Moore to pop out to second for the final out.

“Nick changed everything,” Mitchell said. “Jax was pretty good and I thought they did a really nice job against him and after that Nick coming in and doing what he did is absolutely the game changer for us.”

Schroeder was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored for City High while Drake Obermueller and Talon Young each added hits.

Junior Adam Bowman pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to secure the save for City High.

“It’s just confidence all the way around,” Nye said. “If you trust the guy in front of you or behind you you will win every game.”

Waukee                      300  000  0  –  3  9  3

City High                   020  003  x  –  5  5  2

W – Nick Meredith                             L – Brayden Moore                   SV – Adam Bowman

2B – ICH: Drake Obermueller. WAU: Will Biggs, Grant Sorensen

3B – ICH: Jaxton Schroeder

HR – ICH: Drew Nye

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating