Metro Sports Report

Rumpf beats Kennedy, 10 months too late

IOWA CITY - Ryan Rumpf knows he made a big mistake at the state baseball tournament last year and may have cost Iowa City West the Class 4A title against Kennedy.

He was supposed to pitch against the Cougars in the state finals, but he was suspended before the game and watched helplessly as Kennedy rolled to an 11-1 victory and the championship.

That's why Rumpf was so anxious to pitch against the top-ranked Cougars Tuesday night. Missing the state finals has gnawed at him for the last 10 months.

"Since that game ended, I marked this game on my calender," he said Tuesday. "This game was pretty big for me, to see where I'm at and to see what I could have done last year. This is the game I wanted to pitch for a long time."

Rumpf tossed a complete game and beat Kennedy, 8-1, in the opener of a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader at Iowa City West to help ease his pain.

The Cougars won the nightcap, 10-8, to gain a split.

Hawks hammer J-Hawks twice

The Jefferson J-Hawks hit three home runs Tuesday night in the friendly confines of their own baseball park.

Prairie belted six.

The Hawks raked Jefferson pitching for 15 hits in each game and swept past the J-Hawks, 15-4 and 11-2, in a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader.

Jefferson's Tanner Unkel and Bailey Hollingsworth belted home runs in the bottom of the first inning of the opener to stake the J-Hawks to a 3-0 lead.

Dustin Carlson gave up both homers in the first inning, but survived to get the complete game win, walking one and striking out eight.

“You just gotta go out there and try harder the next inning,” Carlson said. “It’s really nice when your teammates go out and get you 15 runs.”

Prairie (3-2, 2-0 MVC) roared back with 11 runs in the top of the second, when three Hawks swatted homers. Jason Velvick belted a grand slam, Dustin Carlson a three-run homer and brother Brayton Carlson added a solo shot.

Ries puts his foot down in Xavier split

Xavier Coach Dave Schemmel gave Alex Ries some good advice this week. It paid off Tuesday.

Ries stroked a clean RBI single to left field to break a 6-6 tie and give the Saints a 7-6 victory over Linn-Mar in the first game of a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader at Ken Charipar Field.

Linn-Mar won the nightcap, 10-1.

J-Hawks bang out 28 hits in softball sweep

After waiting an extra week to get its season underway, the Jefferson bats came out hot Tuesday night at Prairie High School. The J-Hawks pounded out 16 hits in a 12-0 six-inning win in game one, then held the Hawks off 9-5 behind 12 hits in the nightcap to sweep the Mississippi Valley Conference softball doubleheader.

“I was pleased with how we hit the ball tonight,” Jefferson Coach Larry Niemeyer said. “We have really been working on getting on top of the ball and we did a good job of that tonight.”

No. 11 Jefferson (2-0) came into the night without having played a game. The J-Hawks' opener last week against Iowa City West was rained out. Prairie (2-1) was coming off a non-conference loss to Mount Vernon on Saturday.

The J-Hawks scored early and often to completely dominate the opener. Rachel Sedlacek, Kenna Fry, Maddie Koolbeck and Maddie Blietz had three hits apiece. Fry drove in three runs, Koolbeck and Blietz had two RBIs apiece.

The J-Hawks scored in every inning but the third and put up crooked numbers in each of the last three innings to end the game early. On the other side of the field, the Prairie Hawks could not get anything going against Jefferson ace Hannah Petersen. Despite battling an illness, Petersen tossed five strong innings, giving up no runs on only one hit.

Senior Katie Naber was not able to play for undisclosed reasons, so Petersen pitched the second game, too.

The nightcap was a much closer affair. Sedlacek, Petersen, Fry, Carson Burgart and Koolbeck had two hits apiece for the J-Hawks. Burgart had a pair of doubles and drove in two runs. Fry hit a two-run home run and Koolbeck had a triple.

After Fry slugged her homer to extend the J-Hawks lead to 6-3 in the top of the fifth inning, Prairie senior Katie Carver pulled the Hawks within 6-5 with a two-run blast of her own.

Jefferson closed out Prairie by tacking on three more runs in the seventh and shutting the Hawks down in the home half. Despite the final outcome, the Hawks showed some life in the second game, banging out eight hits. Carver, batting ninth in the order, had two hits.

“We had a better approach and focus in the second game,” Prairie Coach Kimi Hynek said. “I think we hit the ball better in the second game. Hopefully, we keep it going through the rest of the week.”

Jefferson hosts eighth-ranked Waterloo West on Thursday. Prairie plays at Waterloo East on Thursday.