Drake Vanous played on a national championship baseball team as a 13-year-old, but his high school career at Jefferson has not been quite as spectacular.

Vanous has played the outfield and been used as a courtesy runner during this, his senior season. But he had only 19 at-bats in 21 games before Friday night's doubleheader against Waterloo East.

Vanous was the designated hitter in the opening game as Jefferson Coach Mike Kuba got all nine of his seniors into the starting lineup on Senior Night at the Jefferson field.

"It was a nice opportunity for us to get everybody into the same game," Kuba said. "It's about the opportunity to create memories for the kids."

Vanous, who wrote on his notes card that was read between games that his greatest baseball memory was winning the national championship, created another memory in the opener, stroking a two-run opposite-field double in the J-Hawks' four-run fourth inning that wrapped up a 13-0 win. Jefferson (13-21, 10-16) also won the nightcap, 11-6.

"Yeah, I would have liked to have played a little bit more," Vanous said. "But it's been all right. This was a nice way to cap it off, I guess you'd say."

Vanous played with J-Hawk teammates Bailey Hollingsworth, Michael Rooney and Jordan McCormick on the 13-under team that won a national championship. While other youngsters may have scoffed at being a part-time player and dropped out of the sport, Vanous said he couldn't imagine not playing baseball.

"I play for the love the game," said Vanous, who will attend Kirkwood in the fall and study industrial tech with the goal of being an electrician. "I could never walk away from baseball. It's going to be tough walking away after this season. I've been playing with some of these guys over 10 years. It's going to be hard to see them leave."

Senior Hunter Scott also has been a part of the Jefferson program for five years. He got his first varsity start in left field Friday night. While he went 0-for-2 at the plate, he made a couple of catches on defense, including one where he nearly got spun around before employing a salsa dance move to straighten himself out and snare the ball.

"Ooh, it started tailing and so I had to keep switching around with my shoulders," Scott said of his catch. "I finally jumped up and kind of caught it like (Cubs outfield Alfonso) Soriano."

Kuba said he was glad to be able to get Scott on the field because of all the hard work he has put in over the years. Scott said he stuck it out and put in the time because of his love for the game.

"All my friends are on the team and I've played baseball since I was a little kid, so I can't just go up and quit," said Scott, who is going to Northern Iowa to study athletic training. "I had the mindset that I'd keep playing and keep getting better. Baseball is a great game to play."

The J-Hawks are getting better, just in time for the postseason. After getting blasted by Kennedy, 15-5, to start the week Monday they have run off four straight wins, including a 6-4 win at Kennedy. It is their longest winning streak of the season.

"I think things are going according to the plan that any coach would hope for the last two weeks of the season," Kuba said. "We took some leaps forward this week and the fear is whenever you take one or two leaps forward that you take two or three steps backward. We've done a pretty good job of not having that happen so far and the key has been being consistent. We're playing with confidence and our hitting if pretty contagious right now."

The J-Hawks had 24 hits in the doubleheader and recorded their third straight game reaching double digits in hits. They are batting .430 (46-for-107) with 20 extra-base hits over their past four games.

Hollingsworth swatted home runs in both games Friday, including a grand slam in the J-Hawks' nine-run outburst in the first inning of the opener.

"I don't think I've ever hit a grand slam," said Hollingsworth, who is 6-for-10 with a double, two home runs and eight RBIs over the last four games. "Their pitchers were throwing strikes and I was just waiting to see my pitch and jump on it."

Senior Tanner Unkel had a three-run home run to cap the scoring in the first inning of the opener. He was 5-for-6 in the doubleheader and was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle in the nightcap.

"Last inning I said, 'OK, I'm just going to swing for it with one pitch,' " said Unkel, who ended up walking. "It was a good hitting night for everybody."

Unkel finished the night with two doubles, a triple and a home run. He also made his first appearance on the mound. He pitched two-thirds of and inning and got rocked for three runs. But he struck out a batter on a nasty knuckleball.

"Those runs don't matter," Kuba said. "What mattered was seeing a kid get out there and make some memories. He won't remember those runs, but he will remember the strikeout he had."

Senior Jake Schmidt also had two hits and drove in three runs in the opener.

East (5-33, 2-24) managed only three hits in the opener off junior Chance Tiedtke, who walked three and struck out four.

Jefferson hit three home runs in the nightcap. Junior Christian Knox led off the bottom of the second with a home run that broke a 2-2 tie and two batters later Rooney ripped a two-run home run. Hollingsworth's home run came in a three-run fourth that increased Jeff's lead to 9-2 and the J-Hawks tacked on two more runs in the fifth for an 11-2 lead.

Jefferson has three non-conference games to close out the regular season. The J-Hawks play at Burlington Saturday night, then host Western Dubuque and Davenport North on Monday and Wednesday, respectively. They play at Kennedy in a substate first-round game July 15.

"We needed a night like this to come into next Friday night against Kennedy," Unkel said.

Game 1

WATERLOO EAST (0)
Bryce Frost, rf, 2 0 0 0, Cody Wilson, c, 2 0 0 0, Colton Rathe, lf, 1 0 0 0, Nate Sahr, dh-p, 1 0 0 0, Tyler Andreason, p, 0 0 0 0, John Magnuson, ss, 2 0 2 0, Nick Schutte, 1b, 1 0 0 0, Austin Berry, 2b, 2 0 1 0, Shawn Boehmer, 3b, 2 0 0 0, Jesse Billings, cf, 2 0 0 0. Totals 15 0 3 0.

JEFFERSON (13)
Tanner Unkel, 2b, 3 2 2 3, Michael Rooney, 1b, 2 2 1 0, Alex Larson, ss, 3 1 1 0, Jordan McCormick, 3b, 1 2 0 0, Bailey Hollingsworth, rf, 3 1 2 4, Drew Striegel, c, 3 0 1 0, Aaron Gruwell, cr, 0 1 0 0, Jake Schmidt, cf, 3 2 2 3, Drake Vanous, dh, 3 1 1 2, Chance Tiedtke, p, 0 0 0 0, Hunter Scott, lf, 2 1 0 0. Totals 23 13 10 12.

Waterloo East   000 00 -   0  3  1
Jefferson          900 4x - 13 10 1

Andreason, Sahr (1) and Wilson. Tiedtke and Striegel. W - Tiedtke (4-2). L - Andreason (0-3). 2B - Unkel (8), Schmidt (5), Vanous (2). HR - Unkel (4), Hollingsworth (3). SB - Rathe (20), Rooney (11).

Game 2

WATERLOO EAST (6)

Frost, rf, 3 0 0 0, Wilson, 2b-p, 4 1 2 0, Sahr, c, 3 1 2 1, Andreason, cr, 0 1 0 0, Rathe, 3b, 3 1 1 0, Magnuson, ss, 4 0 1 0, Joe Mnayer, 1b, 4 0 1 0, Berry, dh-2b, 2 1 0 0, Boehmer, p, 0 0 0 0, Billings, cf, 3 1 1 3, Schutte, lf,  2 0 0 1. Totals 28 6 8 5.

JEFFERSON (11)

Unkel, 2b-p, 3 2 3 1, Gruwell, cr-pr, 0 1 0 0, Rooney, cf, 4 2 2 2, Larson, ss, 2 0 1 1, McCormick, 1b-3b, 2 2 0 0, Hollingsworth, rf, 3 1 2 2, Striegel, c, 4 0 3 1, Vanous, cr, 0 2 0 0, Jordan Dee, p-1b, 2 0 1 1, Colten Jourdan, p, 0 0 0 0, Hunter Scott, cr, 0 0 0 0, Sam Techau, 3b-2b, 3 0 1 0, Christian Knox, lf, 4 1 1 1. Totals 27 11 14 9.

Waterloo East   020 003 1 -   6   8  3
Jefferson          231 320 x -  11 14 2

Boehmer, Wilson (4) and Sahr. Dee, Unkel (6), Jourdan (6) and Striegel. W - Dee (2-3). L - Boehmer (0-7). 2B - Unkel, Larson, Striegel 2. 3B - Unkel. HR - Billings (1), Rooney (3), Hollingsworth (4), Knox (2). SB - Wilson (8), Rooney (12).