Metro Sports Report

White Sox take Freese in 34th round

Tuesday was not a good day for Dakota Freese.

Tuesday was Day 2 of the Major League draft and Freese was not selected in the top 30 rounds.

"Very stressful," he said.

Wednesday was better.

The Chicago White Sox picked Freese in the 34th round, making him the 1,041st player selected overall. That helped put Tuesday in the rearview mirror.

"I don't really care now. I'm just so happy," he said.

Freese is a 6-foot-4 pitcher for Cedar Rapids Washington. He has signed to play at LSU-Eunice, a junior college in Louisiana, but his goal is to play pro baseball.

"It all depends on the money right now," he said.

Freese had been contacted by numerous Major League teams prior to the draft, including the White Sox. "I was hoping they might take me," he said.

Players have until Aug. 15 to make a decision, either to accept a pro contract or go to school. Freese is scheduled to pitch for Washington Thursday night against Linn-Mar.

Christensen belts 3 homers against Ottumwa

A total of 1,530 players were selected in the amateur baseball draft this week, but none of the 30 Major League teams decided to pick Austin Christensen.

Maybe nobody is paying attention.

Christensen belted three more home runs Wednesday night and drove in seven runs as top-ranked Kennedy clubbed Ottumwa, 16-6, in six innings at Kennedy Field.

Christensen is hitting .684 with 10 homers and 27 RBIs in 13 games, but nobody thought the 6-foot-4 slugger with the sweet swing was worthy of being drafted.

"I wanted to get drafted. I'm disappointed nothing happened," Christensen said after his powerful display. "But they (the scouts) knew what they were doing. They have other guys that they have more confidence in.

"That's OK," he said. "I'll go to college and hopefully in a couple of years, we'll look forward to it (the draft) again."

25 years for Linn-Mar and Prairie? Really?

Wow!

I received another dose of in-my-face reality Monday as I read the column of my colleague Mark Dukes. I almost fell off my chair when I read that next year will be 25 years since Linn-Mar and Prairie joined the Mississippi Valley Conference.

I still remember taking in what was the first football game for the Lions in the MVC, when they hosted Kennedy at Armstrong Field on a beautiful early fall night. It was beautiful for the Lions, anyway. They scored early and often in the win against the Cougars that night! That had to be one of the first MVC sports contests in Linn-Mar history, a history as Mark pointed out, that has been very good of late.

Let's not discount the Hawks either. Prairie has many banners on the gym wall celebrating both conference and state championships in various sports. It has been a very good thing for those two schools to have joined the MVC.

But what about the future?

J-Hawks win pitchers' duel

No. 9 Jefferson and No. 12 Waterloo West both enjoy the luxury of having one of the top softball pitchers in the state.

It showed Wednesday night at Jefferson when J-Hawks junior ace Hannah Petersen and Waterloo West senior ace Jadyn Spencer hooked up in a classic pitchers' duel.

Petersen and the J-Hawks, literally, squeezed out a 3-1 victory at home.

The nightcap was rained out.

Jefferson (8-1, 5-0 Mississippi Valley Conference) scored all three of its runs in the fourth inning, laying down four consecutive bunts after a leadoff single by junior Rachel Sedlacek. Junior Kailey Drake had a bunt single before West committed an error on a sacrifice bunt by Petersen that scored Sedlacek and Drake. A sacrifice bunt by junior Kenna Fry moved courtesy runner Ashley Madsen to third and she scored on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Maddie Koolbeck.

Spencer, who has signed to play college ball at Alabama, dominated the J-Hawks through the first three innings, giving up no hits and striking out five. She finished with 10 strikeouts and allowed only two hits.

Petersen escaped a jam in the first inning when, with one out and West runners at first and third, she recorded a pair of strikeouts. After escaping the first, Petersen dominated the Wahawk lineup. She also spun a two-hitter, allowing an unearned run in the sixth inning.