Linn-Mar Baseball

Lions and Prairie in same baseball substate

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy baseball team had to defeat Jefferson and Xavier this week to win the Metro Tournament, and the Cougars might have to beat them again to reach the Class 4A state tournament.

The IHSAA has assigned the Cougars, J-Hawks and Saints to Substate 3 for the postseason tournament, along with Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior and Western Dubuque. The substate champion will advance to the state baseball tournament in Des Moines.

The IHSAA has announced the groupings for each Class 4A substate, but the sites and pairings will be announced later. The games are scheduled for July 15, 18 and 20.

The Linn-Mar Lions and Prairie Hawks were assigned to Substate 2 with Cedar Falls, Mason City, Waterloo East and Waterloo West.

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Linn-Mar splits twinbill at Bettendorf

BETTENDORF - The Linn-Mar High School baseball team came within a whisker of sweeping a doubleheader at Bettendorf Friday, but came home with a split instead.

The Lions won the first game, 3-2, behind effective relief pitching by Jake Stolley, who tossed three shutout innings for the win.

Linn-Mar owned a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning of the nightcap, but Bettendorf scored three times to prevail, 4-3.

The split left the Lions with a 1-2 record. Bettendorf also is 1-2.

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Walks kill Lions in loss to Xavier

Xavier took advantage of 11 walks and six hits to fashion a 9-5 win over Linn-Mar on Monday night at Xavier in the first round of the Bob Vrbicek Metro Tournament.

The game was tied, 5-5, heading into the bottom of the sixth inning.

But five walks, a hit batsman and Alex Ries' RBI single pushed across four Xavier runs and the Saints went on to victory.

Xavier opened the scoring in the bottom of the first.  The Saints manufactured two runs with a walk, a hit batsman, an infield single, and an error. Linn-Mar came back in the top of the third with two runs of their own on an RBI double by Ben Larison and a sacrifice fly by Jordan Stroschein.

Xavier added three runs in the bottom of the third. Corbin Woods had an RBI double and Alex Ries a run-scoring single.

Linn-Mar scored a run in the fifth when Larison delivered a sacrifice fly, and Corey Prokop's two-run single in the top of the sixth tied the game, 5-5.

Saints starting pitcher Ean McNeal went 5 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on two hits.  He struck out six and walked three.

Mack Mattke relieved McNeal and finished it out for the win.  Mattke blanked the Lions and gave up two hits.

Mattke has made the transition from catching to pitching.

“I just have to concentrate on keeping my weight back and really use my hips,” explained Mattke.  “It is kind of tough to change your arm slot like that, but I will do whatever coach wants me to do.”

Ries and Mattke each collected two hits.

“I am glad we came out swinging for this first game of the year,” said Ries.  “We need to concentrate on fundamentals, and just get the job done.”

Michael Redmond led Linn-Mar with two hits.  Larison and Prokop each knocked in two runs.  Jake Stolley started on the mound for the Lions and went 2 1/3 innings. Nate Greve took the loss in relief, pitching 3 1/3 innings.

Linn-Mar will play Marion Tuesday night at 5 at Xavier and Xavier will host Washington at 7.

LINN-MAR (5)
Nate Greve, dh, 3 1 0 0, Blackford, 1b, 0 0 0 0, Ben Larison, ss, 3 0 1 2, Michael Redmond, cf, 3 0 2 1, Jordan Stroschein, rf, 2 0 0 0, Jeremy Danover, c, 3 0 0 0, Travis Kvach, cr, 0 1 0 0, Kevin Bogert, lf, 2 0 0 0, Mitch Stickney, ph, 0 1 0 0, Nate Johnson, p, 0 0 0 0, Eric Bohr, 2b, 0 0 0 0, Jake Stolley, p, 3 0 0 0, Corey Prokop, 2b, 3 1 1 2, Austin Stroschein, 3b, 1 1 0 0. Totals 23 5 4 5.

XAVIER (9)
Blake Helms, ss, 4 2 0 0, Nate Even, 2b, 2 2 0 0, Mack Mattke, 1b, 3 1 2 0, Josh Tipton, cr, 0 0 0 0, Kevin Hosch, lf, 4 1 1 1, Corbin Woods, 3b, 3 2 1 1, Eric Zenisek, rf, 2 1 0 0, Alex Ries, cf, 2 0 2 2, Colby Brecht, c, 1 0 0 1, Colin Brown, cr, 0 0 0 0, Ean McNeal, p, 3 0 0 0. Totals 24 9 6 5.

Linn-Mar  002  012  0 -- 5  4  1
Xavier        203  004  x -- 9  6  2

Stolley, Greve (3), Johnson (6), A.Strochein (6) and Danover. McNeal, Mattke (6) and Brecht.
2B--Larison, Mattke, Woods. SB--Kvach, Prokop 2, Tipton.

Lechner optimistic about Linn-Mar baseball

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Third in a series of preseason articles about Metro baseball teams. Next: Marion.)

Linn-Mar High School baseball coach Chad Lechner hopes a healthy combination of youth and experience will produce a successful season for the Lions this year.

Lechner's tentative starting rotation includes two juniors and two sophomores, so the Lions could be young on the mound. From Lechner's point of view, they're young but talented.

He has veterans at many of the other spots and likes what he's seen in practice so far.

"It's gone well. They're very upbeat," he said. "It's been a really good group so far. I think we're ahead of where we've been in some years at this time.

"It seems like maybe we have more returning experience than we've had for a while," he said. "And that certainly helps, not having to spend so much time on a lot of things. They kind of understand already what we want, what we expect. So it's going very well. I think we're very encouraged at this point."

Lechner listed Jake Stolley, Nate Greve, Keaton Blackford and Justin Wyant as his top four starting pitchers. Stolley and Blackford are juniors, while Greve and Wyant are just sophomores.

Stolley emerged as Linn-Mar's top pitcher last season when he went 2-4 with a 2.02 ERA.

"He did a really nice job for us last year, so we feel confident he's our No.1," Lechner said. "I think he's an exceptional pitcher. Big, left-handed, still growing into his body. So we'll see how he does. I think he has the potential to be a high-level pitcher.

"And Nate Greve on the mound has been very impressive," he added.

Ben Larison pitched in nine games last season, compiling a 2-2 mark and 4.63 ERA, but Lechner said he'd like to keep Larison (.383) at shortstop as much as possible.

Linn-Mar's pitching staff finished with a 5.15 ERA last season and the defense committed 57 errors, two areas Lechner would like to see improved this season.

He thinks he'll have a strong outfield with Aaron Hunter (.303), Jordan Stroschein (.390) and Michael Redmond (.312), with Hunter in the middle.

"It's been a long time since I've had a team that I think is going to cover as much ground as we will in the outfield," Lechner remarked. "It's a really solid group defensively in the outfield.

"Aaron Hunter is a really good player," he said. "I see him as having a really tremendous senior year."

Unfortunately for the Lions, Hunter has been suspended for the first five games of the season due to a violation of school rules.

Lechner thinks Jeremy Danover will do a good job behind the plate for the Lions. He listed Corey Prokop as the likely second baseman, with Eric Bohr competing for playing time there as well.

"We feel like we have a lot of experience up the middle, and usually that's a good starting point," Lechner said. "It's something to build off."

Larison has signed with Kirkwood Community College, Stroschein has committed to Ellsworth Community College and Hunter has committed to Rockford (Ill.) College.

Linn-Mar plays Xavier in the quarterfinals of the Metro Tournament on Monday, May 23 at Xavier at 7 p.m.

The Lions finished 14-22 overall last season and 9-16 in the Mississippi Valley Conference. Lechner looks to improve upon those numbers.

"I feel like we have more experience going into this year than we did last year," he said. "Now we have seniors who have played big roles, and even juniors that played big roles last year.

"Our goals are to get better every day, to be quite honest," he said. "I think that we can compete at a high level, but then there's a lot of good teams. We can come out on any given night and play well and maybe end up on the short end of it.

"I anticipate us being in a lot of games this year with an opportunity to come through, and that wasn't always the case last year, especially early on," he said. "This is probably the best feel I've had at Linn-Mar since I've come here at the beginning of a season, with the potential that's there."

Lechner joined the Linn-Mar baseball program as an assistant coach in 1998.