Kennedy Baseball

Kennedy slips to No. 3 in rankings

The Kennedy Cougars dropped one spot to No. 3 in the Class 4A baseball rankings Monday despite winning all four of their games last week.

The Cougars took a 14-2 record into Monday night's doubleheader against Iowa City High at home.

Dubuque Hempstead remained No.1 in the Class 4A poll. Waukee jumped from No.5 to No. 2 in the rankings, pushing Kennedy to No.3.

The Xavier Saints, ranked No.9 in Class 3A last week, fell out of the rankings this week.

CLASS 4A

1. Dubuque Hempstead, 2. Waukee, 3. Kennedy, 4. Dowling Catholic, 5. Des Moines East, 6. Ankeny Centennial, 7. Cedar Falls, 8. Dubuque Senior, 9. Fort Dodge, 10. Urbandale.

CLASS 3A

1. Sioux City Heelan, 2. West Delaware, 3. Clear Lake, 4. Waverly-Shell Rock, 5. Fairfield, 6. Dubuque Wahlert, 7. Perry, 8. Harlan, 9. MOC-Floyd Valley, 10. Saydel.

Cougars, J-Hawks lead Metro baseball

This is not shaping up as a particularly good year for high school baseball in the Metro area.

Only Kennedy and Jefferson have winning records in conference games. And only Kennedy, Jefferson and Xavier have winning records overall.

The Xavier Saints suffered a big loss this month when Mitch Keller accepted a $1 million signing bonus from Pittsburgh and left to begin his pro career.

The Linn-Mar Lions also have suffered a big loss with all-state catcher Brandt Ollinger playing travel ball this summer with an all-star team. Linn-Mar Coach Chad Lechner said Ollinger will be gone for an extended period of time.

Kennedy is ranked No. 2 in Class 4A and Jefferson defeated No. 1 Hempstead in the second game of a doubleheader Friday.

Here are the Metro records through June 22:

Kennedy         14-2 overall   10-2 MVC
Jefferson       13-6 overall   8-4 MVC
Xavier          12-8 overall   6-6 MVC
Marion          8-8 overall    6-6 Wamac
Linn-Mar        9-14 overall   4-8 MVC
Prairie         4-12 overall   3-7 MVC
Washington      3-12 overall   3-9 MVC
Cedar Valley    0-14 overall

No. 2 Cougars sweep Dubuque Wahlert

DUBUQUE - Sammy Lizarraga and Zach Daniels pitched strong games Friday as No.2 Kennedy swept a Mississippi Valley Conference twinbill from Dubuque Wahlert, 4-0 and 6-1.

Lizarraga tossed a three-hit shutout with five strikeouts in the first game. Derek Jacobus, Matt Stevens and Ben Sass had RBIs.

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Neuhaus boosts Kennedy pitching staff

Sawyer Neuhaus was not an overnight sensation in the Kennedy youth baseball program when he was growing up, unlike some of the other players on the varsity this year.

He began playing in the Hiawatha Kids League before joining the Junior Cougars, then played for Junior Cougar Green teams before joining the upper level Gold squad with guys like Zach Daniels and Sammy Lizarraga.

Now he's an important member of the all-junior starting rotation for the Kennedy Cougars, who are ranked No.2 in the state in Class 4A.

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