Local News

Todd Rima named Kirkwood baseball coach

Todd Rima has been named the new head baseball coach at Kirkwood Community College.

Rima replaces Tim Evans, who was fired last week.

Rima has been the head coach at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in Mason City. He played at the University of Northern Iowa and was a two-year captain.

Evans compiled a 21-33 record in 2012 during his only year as head coach. He succeeded John Lewis, who retired after the 2011 season.

Travis Hergert, who played college ball at Kirkwood and Mount Mercy, succeeds Rima at NIACC. Hergert has been Rima's assistant for eight years with the Trojans.

Bales helps Watkins win state title

WATKINS - Kennedy graduate Danny Bales was named the Most Valuable Player of the Iowa Amateur Baseball Association state tournament after helping the Watkins Mudhens win their fifth state title in a row Monday.

Bales (7-1) struck out nine batters and was the winning pitcher as Watkins defeated Red Top, 8-1, in the championship game.

Kennedy graduate Griffin Michael played third base for Watkins in the state tournament and hit .350. Prairie grad D.J. Utley hit a two-run homer in the championship game and led the Mudhens in homers this season.

Linn-Mar grad Sam Tracy was one of the Mudhens' catchers and had a big double to help Watkins (24-11) reach the finals.

Regis High School graduate Ed Walter played his 25th season for Watkins and won his 10th state title with the Mudhens.

Visitors from Japan pack happy memories

The baseball team from Yamanashi, Japan gathered in the Kennedy parking lot Wednesday morning to catch their bus and head out of town.

They carried their luggage and equipment bags, as you'd expect, and head coach Kiyoshi Ozawa had several copies of The Gazette tucked neatly under his arm for safekeeping.

The Gazette ran a big picture of Ozawa greeting Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer and tipping his cap before Tuesday's game, and Ozawa was all smiles Wednesday as members of his traveling party teased him about the photo.

Ozawa was clearly pleased to have a memento of his trip to Cedar Rapids, the final stop on his team's six-game tour in Iowa.

The Japanese players exchanged hugs and handshakes with their host families and boarded the bus for a couple of special visits before heading back to their base in Des Moines.

They stopped at Veterans Memorial Stadium for a tour of the Class A minor league ballpark, and each of the players and coaches was graciously given a Cedar Rapids Kernels cap by the home team. The players snapped more pictures -- a staple of each stop on their tour - and boarded the bus again for Bloomsbury Farm in Benton County.

The trip to the farm was strictly a non-baseball event, and the Japanese kids had a great time bouncing on a giant trampoline, looking at the animals, taking a haystack ride around the working farm and feasting on a lunch of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, cookies, chips, watermelon and all the lemonade, iced tea and water they could drink.

All of the Japanese players are slender fellows with little body fat, but you have to wonder how they stay so slim. Like their American teenage counterparts, they know a good feed when they see one and like to chow down.

The Japanese enjoyed Tuesday's lunch catered by Genghis Grill, they dove into Tuesday's dinner courtesy of Carlos O'Kelly's, and they made several trips through the line at Bloomsbury Farm. And that doesn't count the food they consumed with their host families.

They spent about 2 1/2 hours at Bloomsbury Farm before boarding the bus again for the trip to Des Moines, dinner at a Hooters restaurant Wednesday night and a visit to Camp Dodge.

The folks from Yamanashi are scheduled to begin their long journey back to Japan at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, filled with souvenirs and memories of their week in Iowa. They compiled a 3-2-1 record in their six-game series and proved themselves to be worthy ballplayers.

They'll have plenty of pictures to sort when they get home, including a group shot of them happily posing with the Kennedy girls volleyball team during an impromptu stop in the Kennedy gym Tuesday morning shortly after they arrived in Cedar Rapids. A baseball team from Iowa is scheduled to visit Japan for a series of games in 2013, and another team from Yamanashi is scheduled to visit Iowa
in 2014 as part of a cultural exchange program sponsored by Iowa AAU.

We Iowans have two years to brush up on our Japanese.

Big crowd sees Metro All-Stars top Japan

For the past several days, people kept asking Metro Sports Report officials how many fans were expected for the Japan-Metro All-Star Classic Tuesday night.

The stock answer was "anywhere from 50 to 500," never dreaming the actual total might approach 500 for the international contest at the Kennedy High School baseball field.

Nobody will ever know exactly how many folks jammed the ballpark, but one informal head count topped 400 and some people thought it was higher than that.

Suffice to say, the game between the Metro All-Stars and a touring team from Yamanashi, Japan was a smash hit.

The Metro All-Stars built a 10-1 and claimed a 10-6 victory on a beautiful night for baseball that left everyone with big smiles -- even the folks from Japan.

"I thought it was a really neat experience for players, coaches, fans," said Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer, who led the Metro club. "Just a huge crowd. And well-played baseball. Well-pitched for the most part. Some guys with some big hits. It was a neat deal."

Cody Bell and Logan Ambrosy, who formed a strong 1-2 punch for Kennedy this past season, belted home runs and Prairie star Brayton Carlson hit two triples and drove in four runs as the Metro All-Stars grabbed a 10-1 cushion after five innings.

The visitors from Japan battled back and got a two-run homer from Katsushi Ono in the eighth inning and a three-run blast from Shingo Tsuchiya in the ninth to make it interesting.

The Japanese team finished its six-game tour of Iowa with a 3-2-1 record. They played all of their previous games in central Iowa and never drew more than 100 fans.

"It was a fun atmosphere to play in," said Addison Johnson, a top defensive catcher from Marion High School. "The crowd was more than I expected. I didn't think that many people would come."

There were television cameras from KGAN/FOX 28 and KCRG, a reporter and photographer from The Gazette and Hall of Famer Bob Brooks from KMRY radio.

The Metro Sports Report, which presented the game, covered the event with two reporters and two photographers and had three members of its advertising sales staff selling commemorative T-shirts and programs.

Tyler Hedtke, a lefthander from Marion High School, pitched the first three innings for the Metro All-Stars and allowed only one run. Alex Hayden, an elite all-state pick from Kennedy this year, pitched three scoreless inning of one-hit ball and got the victory.

Carlson finished 3-for-4 with two runs, two triples and four RBIs. Ambrosy went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Chance Tiedtke from Jefferson was 2-for-2. Devon Jacobus from Kennedy drove in two runs and sparkled at shortstop.

"It was a lot of fun," Jacobus said. "Pretty laid back for the most part. It was a fun atmosphere to play in."

Like most people, Jacobus was impressed with the big crowd. "I expected a couple of parents here and there," he remarked.

All 15 members of the Metro All-Star team were graduated seniors who are headed to college, including 12 of them who hope to play college baseball next season. They got to play one final game with their Metro friends on a special night.

"Overall a great experience and a completely different style of baseball," said Johnson, who is headed to Blackhawk Community College to play ball. "It was a great night."

The Metro Sports Report and the Kennedy Baseball Support Group hosted the game. The sponsors were Carlos O'Kelly's, Genghis Grill, Bloomsbury Farm, Iowa AAU and the Cedar Rapids Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Japanese team stayed with local host families Tuesday night and will visit Bloomsbury Farm in Benton County Wednesday morning before heading back to Des Moines. They will return to Japan later this week.

YAMANASHI, JAPAN (6)

Fukushima, rf, 2 2 2 0, Tsuruta, 2b, 2 0 0 0, Nibori, ph/2b, 1 1 0 0, Ogura, 1b, 4 0 0 0, Yudasaka, lf, 1 0 1 0, Tsuchiya, ph/lf, 2 1 1 3, Mitsui, p, 3 0 0 0, Suzuki, ph/rf, 2 0 1 1, Tamagawa, cf, 2 0 0 0, Koike, ph/cf, 2 1 1 0, Tsuruda, 3b, 2 0 0 0, Yoshioka, ph/3b, 3 0 1 0, Kuwabara, c, 2 0 1 0, Ono, c, 3 0 1 0, Takabe, ss, 0 0 0 0, Nakamura, p, 1 0 0 0, Hirama, p, 1 0 0 0, Takabe, ph, 1 0 0 0. Totals 34 6 9 6.

METRO ALL-STARS (10)

Velvick, cf, 3 1 0 0, Redmond, cf, 2 1 0 0, Carlson, 2b, 4 2 3 4, Jourdan, 3b, 1 0 0 0, Bell, 3b/1b, 3 2 1 1, Jacobus, ss, 4 0 1 2, Ambrosy, rf, 5 1 3 2, Hayden, dh/p,2b, 4 0 0 0, Hedtke, p, 0 0 0 0, Johnson, c, 2 0 0 0, Lizarraga, c, 2 0 0 0, Mattke, 1b, 2 1 1 0, Hedtke, pr, 0 1 0 0, Stolley, 1b/p, 1 0 0 0, Tiedtke, lf, 2 1 2 0, Lloyd, lf, 0 0 0 0. Totals 35 10 11 9.

Yamanashi         100 000 023 -  6  9  1
Metro All-Stars  202 420 00x - 10 11 1

W - Hayden. L - Mitsui. 2B - Fukushima, Suzuki. 3B - Carlson 2. HR - Tsuchiya, Ono, Bell, Ambrosy. SB - Fukushima, Redmond, Carlson, Ambrosy.