Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SIOUX CITY – Worth the wait?

The additional miles? The heartbreak along the way?

You bet. All of it.

And then some.

Three decades since its last title game appearance, 294 odd miles from its campus in Iowa City and after two semifinal losses in the past three seasons City High has its first state baseball title.

Fourth-ranked City High (33-9) scored three runs in the first inning on its way to a 4-1 win over Bettendorf on Friday afternoon in the Class 4A state title game at Lewis & Clark Park in Sioux City.

“It’s been a long wait,” City High senior Talon Young said. “There have been a lot of ups and downs but I honestly just collapsed with tears of joy. Nothing feels better than this.”

The title was the first in program history for City High in its fourth trip to the state title game.

It was the first title in any sport for City High since a 4A girls track crown in 2011.

“It’s a surreal feeling, we’ve worked so hard for this, I am proud of everyone,” City High seior shortstop Owen Hicks said. “We’ve worked our whole lives for this.”

The three-run first inning was all the support City High senior starter Jaxton Schroeder would need.

Schroeder was brilliant in his second state tournament start of the week allowing just one run on four hits and fanning eight in a complete game victory.

“It’s the greatest feeling of all time,” Schroeder said. “We’ve worked so hard for this for so many years. It’s like family, we all love each other so much and we’ve all wanted this for so long so it’s the greatest feeling in the world.”

After falling behind in the first inning in each of its first two state tournament wins City High took control immediately in Friday’s title game.

Schroeder worked around a leadoff single by Bettendorf standout Wrigley Matthys in the top of the first inning.

City High scored three runs in the bottom of the first to take a lead it would never give up.

“It means a lot,” City High coach Brian Mitchell said. “These kids did a great job and Jaxton was a beast on the mound and we swung it right away but they hung in there. You have to give them credit they hung in there but Jaxton was just so good.”

Senior Talon Young gave City High a 1-0 lead with a line drive RBI single to let that scored Schroeder.

That was just the start for City High.

“I promised a lot of people that we’d hold this trophy up one day,” Young said. “My last game here at City High nothing tops this.”

Senior Drew Nye provided the big hit in the three-run first inning, a two-out, two-run single to right center field that gave City High a 3-0 lead.

Nye had two RBI in each of the Little Hawks three state tournament wins.

“I just go up to the plate knowing I can get a hit every single time,” Nye said. “I expect myself to get a hit and if I don’t I come back and I get a hit the next at bat and if I don’t I put my head down and work harder.”

Schroeder never let Bettendorf (29-13) get anything going offensively.

The 6-foot-5 left-hander allowing just one hit over the final four innings, a two-out single to Max Davison in the sixth.

Young had two hits and drove in a run while Dom Salibi had two hits and scored twice and Nye had two RBI.

“This is what you work for your whole life,” Nye said. “It’s a great way to go out in your last game of high school.”

Bettendorf                 001  000  0  –  1  4  1

City High                   301  000  x  –  4  9  3

W – Jaxton Schroeder                         L – Kaden Kelly

2B – ICH: Kendall Kurtz

3B – ICH: Owen Hicks. BET: Wrigley Matthys

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