Metro Sports Report

Kennedy pitcher Jacob Henry fires a pitch during a 6-0 win over Pleasant Valley on Tuesday night at Kennedy. (MSR photo by Ken Gilchrist)

No. 3 Cougars split with Spartans

Tue - 15 Jul Written by Jim Ecker

The Kennedy Cougars and Pleasant Valley Spartans played a little game of "I've Got A Secret" during their twinbill at Herkelman Field Tuesday night.

The third-ranked Cougars and Spartans will meet again Friday night at Kennedy in the Class 4A substate tournament and neither coach wanted to give away his secrets in the final games of the regular season.

Kennedy put its varsity lineup on the field in Game 1 and cruised, 6-0,behind a four-hit shutout by Jacob Henry for its 29th win of the year.

Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer backed off in the nightcap and cleared his bench on Senior Night, and by game's end it looked like somebody had kidnapped the Cougars and put strangers in those green-and-white uniforms.

Pleasant Valley took the second game, 10-2.

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Prairie assistant coach Lynnette Stecklein talks to some Hawks players during Monday night's 9-8 loss to Pleasant Valley. (MSR photo by Ken Gilchrist)

Prairie girls trimmed by No. 7 Spartans

Mon - 14 Jul Written by Tom Fruehling

There’s a world of difference between losing a game and getting beat.

The scrappy Prairie softball girls were beaten in a Class 5A regional semifinal by No. 7 Pleasant Valley, 9-8, Monday night, but in no way could they be called losers.

In a heart-breaking end to their season, they went from leading by three runs to trailing by five and coming back to tie.

Then, as they’d done all night, the visiting Spartans from Bettendorf scored after two outs in their half of the seventh inning.

A gangly eighth grade relief pitcher for Pleasant Valley who had been battered by Prairie hitters the previous two innings calmly mowed down the Hawks in order to close out the roller-coaster contest.

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QB from Indiana joins J-Hawks

Mon - 14 Jul Written by Jim Ecker

Jesse Furrow passed for 561 yards and six touchdowns in a single game for Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Ind., last season as a junior.

Now he'll be throwing passes for the Jefferson J-Hawks after moving to Cedar Rapids with his family last winter and enrolling at Jefferson.

Chris Deam, the athletic director at Jefferson, confirmed Monday that Furrow is a student at the school.

Furrow passed for 2,147 yards and 20 touchdowns last fall at Pendleton Heights. He completed 53.1 percent of his passes (147 of 277) with nine interceptions and ran for six TDs.

Furrow is listed at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds on the NCSA Athletic Recruiting website.

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Kernels claim 5th straight win

Sun - 13 Jul Written by Metro Sports Report

CLINTON - The Cedar Rapids Kernels exploded for seven runs in the sixth inning Sunday and defeated Clinton, 7-5, in a rain-shortened game before 957 fans at Ashford University Field.

The tarp was put on the field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and the game was called after a 41-minute rain delay.

The Kernels (42-51) have won five games in a row, including Saturday night's rain-shortened 5-1 victory over the LumberKings.

Clinton scored the first three runs Sunday, but the Kernels scored seven runs in the top half of the sixth as they sent 11 men to the plate to move ahead 7-3.

The Kernels collected five singles and took advantage of one error. It matched the largest run-scoring inning for Cedar Rapids this season.

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Washington players work on soggy Franklin Field Saturday night, but the umpires had already called the game after five innings due to wet grounds. MSR Photo by Margaret O'Banion.

Cougars top Warriors in soggy affair

Sat - 12 Jul Written by Tom Fruehling

Their season suddenly ended by a downpour, Washington softball coach Erin Jones could not see sending her girls home without anything to show for it.

So before the lights were turned off at Franklin Field Saturday night, she had the whole team spread out on the diamond, pouring quick-dry materials in the infield puddles and raking it smooth and dry.

If nothing else, the clean-up convinced her that the Class 5A regional semifinal game with Kennedy should not have been called after five complete innings with the Cougars awarded a 2-0 victory.

“As you can see,” Jones said, “the field has drained and is playable. The umpires shouldn’t have called it so soon.”

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