Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – As the calendar flips to July and the home stretch of the prep baseball season approaches the defending 4A state champions are starting to heat up.

City High extended stretched its season-best winning streak to seven on Monday with a doubleheader sweep of cross-town rival West High on a hot and breezy evening at Mercer Park in Iowa City.

“We are just getting started,” City High senior Paxton Bell said. “This team is really coming together. We are finally all playing to our ability and we have a lot of improvement to make but we are going in the right direction.”

Bell struck out nine in a complete game 5-1 win in the opener and City High hammered 12 hits in a 17-7 win in the nightcap as the Little Hawks improved to 16-17 on the season.

The sweep was the third consecutive Mississippi Valley Conference sweep for City High which swept Linn-Mar and Dubuque Hempstead last week to go with an 8-0 win over 4A sixth-ranked Pleasant Valley.

“We have so much faith in each other,” Bell said. “We know we are going to get it done. Early in the season we had some moments where there was doubt but we are coming together and we are all starting to believe in each other.”

City High had lost seven straight, with five losses to ranked teams, before going 5-0 last week completed by a pair of 4-3 wins over Dubuque Hempstead on Friday.

The Little Hawks picked up where they left off on Monday against West High.

“We’ve played a tough schedule,” City High coach Brian Mitchell said. “We set it up to challenge us because we knew there were going to be a lot of growing pains but we are starting to put it together.”

Bell was excellent in the opener on Monday.

The senior right-hander allowed just one unearned run on five hits while striking out nine and walking just one.

“I liked that he was attacking the zone with his fast ball and slider mix,” Mitchell said. “He just pounded the zone and we talk about it all the time with our pitchers if you can consistently pound the zone and eliminate free bases it makes all the difference in the world.”

City High took advantage of a spell of wildness from West High starter Christian Sawyer in the first inning of the opener.

Bell and Dell Brewer drew back-to-back walks and Coden Kurtz was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Senior outfielder Chris Davis gave City High an early lead with a line drive two-run single to left field.

“He was a little wild and had some walks and I was sitting there thinking fastball,” Davis said. “I figured he was going to try to gas me up and I sat there and got my pitch and got on time and let it fly.”

West High (9-22) got a run back in the second on a Moses DeWaard RBI single but City High tacked on two more in the third thanks to another RBI single by Davis.

“We are putting more barrels to balls and we are a lot more clean in the field,” Davis said. “We’ve cleaned up a lot of errors and we look so much better.”

That was more than enough support for Bell who was aided by ground ball double plays in the fourth and sixth.

“I was coming at them with strikes, I threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and that helped out a lot,” Bell said. “My offspeed was working great.”

In the nightcap City High broke open a 3-3 game with 11 runs in the bottom of the third.

City High sent 14 batters to the plate in the 11-run third inning that featured five hits.

Bell had three hits in the 17-7 win in game two including a double and a triple and drove in three runs while Kurtz had a hit and drove in three runs.

Eight different Little Hawks had a hit in the game-two win as Davis added two more hits.

“I think this was a great thing for us,” Davis said. “Everyone was hitting and everyone’s confidence goes through the roof in a game like this.”

Owen Harms double twice in the opener and had a double, drove in a run and scored twice in the nightcap for West High.

Game 1

West High                 010  000  0  –  1  5  1

City High                   302  000  x  –  5  5  1

W – Paxton Bell                     L – Christian Sawyer

2B – ICW: Owen Harms (2)

Game 2

West High                 201      040  –  7    3    2

City High                   30(11) 012  –  17  12  6

W – August Weissenberger   L – Owen Harms

2B – ICH: Paxton Bell, Blaine Heick. ICW: Christian Sawyer, Jack MacLagan, Owen Harms

3B – ICH: Paxton Bell

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