By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
As the early rounds of the high school baseball tournaments get underway, the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association released the final rankings in each of the state’s four classes.
CIML power Johnston gets the top nod in the state’s largest class, followed by Missouri River Activities Conference favorite Sioux City North in at No. 2. Defending Class 3-A champion Manchester-West Delaware is the top team in that classification, followed by Harlan at No. 2.
Another defending champion, Cherokee, has the No. 1 spot in Class 2-A, followed by Davenport Assumption. Yet another defending champ, Iowa Mennonite of Kalona, is the favorite in Class 1-A, with second-ranked Lansing-Kee expected to bring the strongest challenge.
Baseball: Class 4-A Schools Seeded in Tournaments
For the first time, Iowa’s largest schools are being seeded into the postseason.
As part of a two-year experiment, the Iowa High School Athletic Association has seeded Class 4-A baseball schools based on their records after 30 games of the regular season. Earning top seeds, based on records, were Marshalltown, Southeast Polk, Ankeny, Johnston, Sioux City North, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Bettendorf and Burlington.
“This is a nice way of evening the playing field and rewarding those teams that are playing well,” Council Bluffs Lewis Central coach Lee Toole told the Des Moines Register.
Toole is executive director of the IHSBCA. He felt the Class 4-A seeding plan could be used in all four classes if the two-year experiment works.
Baseball: Hempstead Uses Dramatic Finish to Win MVC Division Crown
Some members of the Dubuque Hempstead baseball Mustangs might have been taking drama lessons to heart in winning its Mississippi Division championship in the Mississippi Valley Conference.
Hempstead used six runs in the final inning for a 10-7 victory over Cedar Rapids Washington during the opening game of a division doubleheader in Cedar Rapids last week. The victory clinched Hempstead’s first league championship in five years. It’s the Mustangs’ 13th overall divisional title.
Ryan Doty had four hits for Hempstead in the doubleheader split, as Washington won the nightcap, 10-3. Ben Cottrell won the game on the mound for the Mustangs in the title clinching victory.
Baseball: Hermsen Weighing Options as Postseason Starts
Manchester-West Delaware is the state’s top-rated baseball team in Class 3-A, due in part to the play of pitcher B.J. Hermsen. But there is as much interest in his future past the high school baseball season as there is in his play the rest of this season.
Specifically, the Minnesota Twins and Oregon State Beavers want to know what Hermsen has in mind.
The Twins drafted him in the sixth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. They’ve encouraged him to finish out his senior season at West Delaware before making a decision on their offer. By playing this year, the Twins can use 2009 draft money in that offer.
Hermsen’s also signed a national letter of intent for Oregon State, so they are interested to learn what the Hawks’ pitcher will decide.
"There's no question he wants to start his pro career," West Delaware head coach Mike Morrison told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. "It will come down to whether the money is what he thinks is fair."
Softball: State Tournament
While the boys are in the midst of determining the 32 teams to play at Des Moines’ Principal Park in their state tournaments later this month, Fort Dodge is the focus of Iowa girls softball teams this coming week.
The four state tournaments will be contested on the diamonds at Harlan Rogers Park in the north central Iowa community. Action gets underway Tuesday with quarterfinal play in Classes 1-A and 2-A.
First round pairings in Class 1-A Tuesday will have Highland against Southwest Webster-Grand, Newell-Fonda against Preston, Fremont-Mills plays Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Alburnett meets Woodbury Central in the other 1-A quarterfinals.
The 2-A quarterfinals will have Turkey Valley against Solon, Pleasantville against Mid-Prairie, Emmetsburg meets Akron-Westfield, and Des Moines Christian tackles North Polk in the other first round contests.
Wednesday begins first-round activity in Class 3-A, as Davenport Assumption is matched with A-D-M, Fort Madison meets Carlisle, Western Dubuque duels Winterset, and Waverly-Shell Rock goes against Sergeant Bluff-Luton.
The quarterfinals conclude on Thursday with Class 4-A action, when West Des Moines Valley stares down Linn-Mar, Muscatine flexes its muscle against Southeast Polk, Cedar Rapids Jefferson jousts with Council Bluffs Lewis Central, and Sioux City North meets Davenport West.
Action continues through Saturday with the teams playing down through all eight places in the each of the four classes.
Golf: Grundy Center Golfer to Play at Northwestern College
Grundy Center golfer Ross Kiewiet will stay in state for his college links career. The Spartans’ golfer will go to Northwestern College in Orange City this fall.
Kiewiet is a four-year letter winner for Grundy Center. He placed seventh in district play as a junior and was an all-conference selection in both his junior and senior seasons.
Ross has personal best scores of 35 for nine holes and 75 for eighteen holes.
Northwestern coach Mark Bloemendaal told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier newspaper, "He is a solid player who is coming off a very good high school career, and we look forward to his contributions toward our team and campus community."
