Metro Sports Report

Warrior rally upends Davenport Central

DAVENPORT - Washington scored four runs in the first and seventh innings Tuesday and beat Davenport Central, 8-5, in a non-conference baseball game at Brady Street Stadium.

Washington (16-21) ended its regular season with seven wins in its last eight games. The Warriors play at Iowa City West on Friday in the first round of the Class 4A substate tournament.

Washington jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, sending nine men to the plate.

Davenport Central (23-10) chipped away and held a 5-4 lead after five innings.

Washington still trailed by a run in the seventh inning, but came back to score four runs. Three of the runs were unearned.

Washington's Mike Troendle (3-4) was the winning pitcher with two innings of scoreless relief.

Jordy Brown was 3-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored and extended his school singles record to 44.

AJ Puk was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Coach? Ump? Carlson shows what he can do

Dustin Carlson figured his college baseball coach came to Monday night's games to watch him play. He had no idea Justin Schulte was there as one of the umpires.

"That was pretty different," Carlson noted.

Carlson is a pitcher and catcher at Cedar Rapids Prairie and he's committed to play for Schulte at Southeastern Community College next season. So has Anthony Gagliardi, one of Carlson's teammates, so it was not unusual for their future coach to attend Monday's games at Marion to check them out.

However, Carlson never figured Schulte would be on the field instead of in the stands.

Schulte was the base umpire for the first contest, which was the completion of a suspended game from June 25. Then he worked behind the plate in the nightcap, which was odd because Carlson was the starting pitcher in that game.

Carlson was pitching, and his future college coach was calling the balls and strikes.

"I saw him at the start of the game and I was like, 'What's he doing back there?' " Carlson said. "I thought he was scouting or something. It was a little different, but I got comfortable with it."

Carlson pitched five strong innings as Prairie won the second game, 10-7. And after he got done pitching, he caught the final two innings with Schulte peeking over his shoulder.

Marion won the completion of the suspended game, 12-2, in six innings.

Schulte plans to use Carlson primarily as a catcher at Southeastern Community College, but he also might be used as a relief pitcher. Carlson proved he can do a little of everything Monday - pitch, catch and hit.

Saints end season with loss at Iowa City West

IOWA CITY - Cedar Rapids Xavier outfielders were positioned about 10 feet from the outfield fence all night, almost as if they knew the ball was going to be hit out there at some point in time.

In the Class 4A regional semifinal at Iowa City West Monday night, the Xavier outfielders could have stepped in a few feet for every inning besides the fifth.

In a game much closer than the score indicates, No.5 Iowa City West defeated the Saints, 7-1, to advance to the regional championship game on Wednesday.

Xavier pitcher Jaycee Wiebold was excellent through four innings against a potent West lineup, holding the Women of Troy to one run on two hits. In the bottom of the fifth, however, West figured her out and broke the game open with six runs.

“I knew that at some point they were going to score a run or two and I was just hoping they wouldn’t have a big inning,” said Xavier Coach Brian Erbe.

In the fifth, West (32-9) got a two-run single from second baseman Brianna Sturtz, breaking a tie game and putting West up 3-1. The next batter was Alise Miller, and she slammed a ball into the left-center gap for a double, scoring two more runs.

To cap the inning, cleanup hitter Shelley Stumpf hit a line drive two-run homer over the left field wall to give West a 7-1 cushion.

“I think you have to give all of the credit to Iowa City West,” said Erbe. “They were very determined and they have excellent hitters.”

The start of the game looked promising for Xavier, which scored in the first inning when Kristen Winter hit an RBI single up the middle to score leadoff hitter Abby Bedard.

But Iowa City West pitcher Mackenzie Laux had already seen enough. She dominated the rest of the game, not allowing another run and striking out 11 Xavier hitters.

Alumni football games rekindle good old days

"Boys of Summer," a description normally reserved for baseball players, took on a whole different meaning Saturday night at Kingston Stadium.

Hundreds of fans turned out on a warm and muggy July night to see alumni of Marion, Linn-Mar, Kennedy and Jefferson play two football games. Linn-Mar defeated Marion in the first game, 28-18, and Kennedy outlasted Jefferson, 17-13, in the nightcap.

But the results were hardly the headline. There was so much more to this night of men, most of whom have families and regular jobs, getting one more chance to suit up and play a football game, for fans to mingle and remember the good old days of a weekend night at the stadium.

I arrived at the stadium for the second game between Jefferson and Kennedy about 20 minutes before the 8 p.m. scheduled kickoff, parking several blocks west of the stadium in a residential neighborhood. It was apparent then the start time would be pushed back.

A line perhaps 100 yards long stretched from the southwest corner ticket booth back into the parking lot. Fans tailgated in the west parking lot, some with beverages perhaps prohibited. People in line were patient and showed their allegiance with an occasional school cheer.

Alumni Football USA, a national organization, made this all happen. The group was making its first foray into Iowa. The Kingston doubleheader actually was the third and fourth alumni game in eastern Iowa, as surrounding towns held games a week and a day prior.

Curiosity sent me to Kingston Stadium, a place where I had covered dozens of high school football games. And I think that’s what moved hundreds of others to attend.

The game between Linn-Mar and Marion had sparse attendance, but the Jefferson-Kennedy game drew 2,000 to 3,000 people, the majority on the Jefferson side. Certainly the turnout for the opener would have been better had it been played at Linn-Mar or Marion.