Metro Sports Report

Mustangs reach .500 mark with sweep

CLINTON - The Mount Mercy Mustangs got strong outings from Austin Czerwiec and Cale Henke Saturday and swept a non-conference doubleheader from Ashford, 4-2 and 6-1, at the Ashford University Field in Clinton.

The sweep lifted Mount Mercy to 11-11 for the campaign.

Czerwiec (4-1) allowed only one earned run in six innings in the first game. He struck out eight batters, walked one and allowed just four hits.

Henke (3-2) tossed 6.2 innings in the nightcap before getting last-out relief from Michael Hackett. Henke was nicked for one unearned run and allowed only three hits. He struck out six batters and walked two.

Cody Williams was 2-for-3 and scored two runs for Mount Mercy in the opener. Jason Darichuk was 3-for-3 and drove in two runs for the Mustangs in the second game. Cody Bell was 2-for-3 and Jimmy Lizarraga scored three runs.

Ashford's record fell to 7-12.

RoughRiders close gap on Youngstown

The race for the Eastern Conference title in the USHL got a lot tighter Friday night.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders belted Waterloo, 7-2, and the Youngstown Phantoms finally lost after 17 straight victories, giving the RoughRiders renewed hope of claiming the conference title.

The RoughRiders raised their record to 37-17-0 for 74 points with six games left in the regular season for them.

Youngstown lost to Omaha, 4-2, dropping the Phantoms to 36-14-5 for 77 points with five games left in their regular season.

Andrew Oglevie and Jiri Fronk scored for the RoughRiders in the first period Friday for a 2-0 lead before 3,376 fans at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. Andrew Gaus and Joe Wegwerth tallied in the second period for a 4-0 advantage and the RoughRiders coasted home from there.

Commissioner thinks Mustangs will add football

The commissioner of the Heart of America Conference thinks Mount Mercy University will start a football program by 2018 if the college is invited to join her league.

The Heart of America presidents will vote April 1 whether to invite Mount Mercy and Clarke University as full members. As it stands now, league by-laws require all schools to have a football team.

"Clarke has made an announcement that they're going to start football in 2018, and I think Mount Mercy is going to follow right behind them," Heart of America Commissioner Lori Thomas said Thursday. "They know it's in the by-laws and we feel positive they will add football. That's the way I understand it."

Thomas has indicated in the past that the by-laws could be changed, dropping football as a requirement, but that does not appear imminent. "At this point in time, there is no change in the by-laws," she said.

Mauer anxious to put Kernels together

FORT MYERS, Fla. - In less than two weeks, Cedar Rapids Kernels Manager Jake Mauer will be bringing a fresh crop of 25 ballplayers north from their spring training home in Fort Myers, but the exact constitution of that roster is still a work in progress.

Mauer said he’d like to get things finalized soon.

“Ideally we’d like to have who we’re going to take to Cedar Rapids by that last week of spring training,” Mauer said Thursday, just before his squad faced a Class A group of Boston Red Sox prospects.

“You can do different things and put in different signs, things we’re going to use throughout the year. Make sure we get all the kinks out before we start up there at Kane County (where the Kernels open their season April 9).”

Mauer will be entering his third season as manager of the Kernels. In fact, among all of the Twins organization’s full-season teams, he’s the only manager assigned to the same club he led a year ago.