Metro Sports Report

Mustang softball drops tight games

DAVENPORT - The Mount Mercy softball team suffered a pair of one-run  defeats at the Ambrose Dome in Davenport Saturday.

The Mustangs lost to Saint Ambrose, 2-1, and fell to Aquinas, 4-3, in eight innings. The setbacks left Mount Mercy with a 2-4 record for the  season.

Mount Mercy collected only two hits in the 2-1 loss to Saint Ambrose.  Jayna Witzany was the hard-luck loser for the Mustangs. She allowed  one earned run on three hits in six innings, with six strikeouts and  three walks.

No. 9 Kirkwood baseball splits openers

AVON, Ohio - The ninth-ranked Kirkwood baseball team began the 2019  season by splitting a doubleheader against Cuyahoga Community College  in Ohio Friday afternoon.

The Eagles won the first game, 7-5, in nine innings. Cuyahoga took the  nightcap, 3-1, in a game shortened to six innings due to darkness.

The temperature at game-time Friday for the opener was 33 degrees.

Jackson Bennett was the winning pitcher and collected the game-winning  RBI for Kirkwood in Game 1. Bennett pitched three strong innings in  relief and gave the Eagles a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth when he  hit for himself.

Bennett did not allow any hits or runs in the last three innings, with  four strikeouts and one walk. Carter Lawler also pitched three  scoreless innings in relief in Game 1.

No. 9 Mustangs spike Graceland

LAMONI - The Mount Mercy men's volleyball team climbed into the  national rankings for the first time in school history this week and the Mustangs played like a national power Friday night.

Mount Mercy whipped Graceland, 25-21, 25-22, 25-18, in a Heart of  America Conference match in Lamoni.

The Mustangs raised their records to 12-5 overall and 4-0 in the conference. Graceland fell to 3-7 overall and 0-2 in the league.

Prospect Meadows will feature top talent

Imagine baseball teams filled with Division I college prospects and  future Major League draft picks coming to Linn County for premier  tournaments and events.

Imagine somebody like Manny Machado, who just agreed to a $300 million  contract with the San Diego Padres, coming to town as a budding high  school player with enormous talent.

Steve James, the Assistant General Manager at Prospect Meadows, does  not have to imagine players like that. He witnessed it first-hand  during his years at Perfect Game USA, and he’ll be seeing the same  thing now with Perfect Game staging a string of its top events at  Prospect Meadows this year.

Perfect Game plans to hold up to 16 events at Prospect Meadows in 2019  as the primary tenant at the new facility that’s being built just  north of Marion at the juncture of Highway 13 and County Home Road.

The grand opening is planned for this spring. The first tournament  will be the Midwest Memorial Day Classic from May 24-27 and the  schedule of events will run through October.

The Memorial Day Classic is for 12U, 13U and 14U age groups, but there  will be plenty of high school-level events as the calendar moves  along. Perfect Game USA is considered the top amateur baseball  scouting service in the country with its events all over the United  States.