Metro Sports Report

Freese leaves Warriors for Chi-Town Cream

Dakota Freese has left the Cedar Rapids Washington baseball team to play for the Chi-Town Cream, a summer travel team that's based in Chicago.

Freese said Monday he plans to play for the Chi-Town Cream for most of the summer, but plans to return to Cedar Rapids and play for Washington in the Class 4A substate tournament in mid-July.

Freese said he hopes playing for the Chi-Town Cream will improve his bargaining position with the Chicago White Sox, who selected him in the 34th round of the Major League draft this month.

"I'm trying to do as good as I can and face the best competition I can and get a good contract," he said.

Freese missed the first seven games of the 2011 high school campaign while serving an in-school suspension at Washington. He compiled a 1-1 record and 2.63 ERA for the Warriors in three appearances after the suspension, with 26 strikeouts and 11 walks in 16 innings. Opponents hit just .113 against him.

J-Hawks snap 7-game skid

Things got ugly during the Jefferson baseball team's seven-game losing streak this month.

Spotty pitching, leaky defense, not enough hitting, maybe a helmet tossed in anger.

The frustration ended Monday night when the J-Hawks clipped Iowa City West, 4-2, in the second game of a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader at the Jefferson field.

Iowa City West won the opener, 14-9.

Jefferson was outscored, 70-23, during its seven-game skid, including an embarrassing twinbill against Dubuque Wahlert last Friday when the J-Hawks got drubbed 18-3 and 11-0.

"I don't remember having a streak like that before," said Jefferson Coach Mike Kuba. "It certainly hasn't happened in my 16 years, and probably 10 years prior to that."

Bailey Hollingsworth helped Jefferson (6-14, 4-10) end the tailspin in the nightcap with a strong performance on the mound. He tossed a complete game and his teammates made some sparkling plays in the field.

Father's Day message: Beware of curveballs

Like many of you, reflections of Father’s Day center on sports, the days you spent on the diamond or court or field when Dad was either coaching or watching.

Dads teach you lessons, whether they mean to or not. That’s what happened when I was a young baseball player.

I was probably 10 or 12 at the time, playing in the popular Cedar Hills Booster Club league at Cherry Hill Park. One summer day, our team was practicing on Diamond #1, the big field on what was then a three-diamond complex.

I was taking batting practice. A big, strong right-hander named Larry Paxton was pitching to us. Dad was standing behind Larry, analyzing our at-bats.

On one pitch, as I learned later, Dad leaned into Larry and said something along the lines of, “Throw him a curveball and see what he can do.’’ Larry was a year older than us and capable of throwing a breaking ball. I hadn’t seen many at that time.

The pitch came to me and it appeared the ball was headed right for my head. Instead of turning or backing away, I ducked down. The ball, of course, curved and smacked me right in the nose. Blood spurted and my nose was smashed. Dad loaded me in the car and we went to the hospital for repairs.

J-Hawks suffer 1st MVC softball loss

No. 6 ranked Cedar Rapids Jefferson dropped its first game of Mississippi Valley Conference play in the nightcap of a softball doubleheader Monday against No. 7 Iowa City West.

Jefferson won the opener, 2-1, then dropped the nightcap, 3-1.

Mackenzie Laux, a transfer from Piken, Ill., baffled the J-Hawk bats for most of the nightcap with a fastball near 65 mph and a good screwball.

Jefferson (17-4, 10-1) didn’t manage to get a hit off Laux until the fifth inning when sophomore Kaitlyn Davidson singled. The perfect game was broken up when Laux hit junior Hannah McInerney in the second.

“Their second pitcher (Laux) just threw it by kids,” Jefferson Coach Larry Niemeyer said. “We just couldn’t pull the trigger.”

Jefferson managed just one run on an RBI single by Hannah Petersen in the sixth inning after junior Rachel Sedlacek tripled leading off the inning.

The Women of Troy (15-5, 10-4) got on the board early against senior Katie Naber after Alise Miller singled in Tatum Klein, who had walked to lead off the inning.  Miller added another RBI with a sacrifice bunt in the third after a leadoff single by Amber Tomas.

West added another run in the sixth.

“If we are going to be a really good team we can’t just get one run,” Niemeyer said. “We have to tack some more on.”

The J-Hawks won the opener of the doubleheader behind a strong performance from Petersen, their junior ace. Petersen allowed only three hits.