Iowa baseball team finishes unbeaten

Iowa: First-time champs win in Classes 4A, 3A, and 2A; Football two-a-days almost here.

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Aug 3, 2010, 10:00am
Though it's never unusual for it to reach the state baseball tournament, there was absolutely nothing run-of-the-mill about Martensdale-St. Mary's (Martensdale, Iowa) this season.

The Blue Devils, who blanked Remsen St. Mary’s 3-0 at Principal Park for their first Class 1A title since 2004, outscored their opponents 461-70 and finished with a perfect 43-0 record. They are just the ninth team in state history to finish a summer season unbeaten.  
 
Equally remarkable was the performance of junior pitcher Ethan Westphal. In his first year at the school after transferring from Lenox, Westphal was 16-0. He struck out 187 and allowed only three earned runs in 94 innings (0.29 ERA).
 
Class 2A: Solon finally adds baseball hardware to its trophy case
 
Marshall Koehn and Derrick Loveless scored two runs apiece as Solon knocked off Carroll Keumper, 5-2, for its first baseball state championship. Nick Day added an RBI double, which was the team’s state-record 130th two-bagger of the season.
 
Winning the title seemed inevitable for the Spartans, who were ranked No. 1 in the state throughout the season and finished with a 41-2 record. The school also won boys championships in basketball, football and track in the last two years. 
 
Class 4A: Kennedy tops MVC rival in championship game
 
The favorites heading into the 4A state tournament were top-ranked Dowling (West Des Moines) and Mason City of the Central Iowa Metro League. But, when the dust settled, it was a pair of Mississippi Valley Conference rivals playing for the title.
 
BJ Cunningham went 2-for-4 and drove in four as Kennedy (Cedar Rapids) whipped Iowa City West, 11-1, in 5 innings for their first title in 12 appearances. The Cougars (32-10) are the first MVC state baseball champion since 1994.
 
Kennedy also defeated both Dowling and Mason City during the tournament.
 
Class 3A: Kaufman lifts Glenwood to its first title
 
There wasn’t much doubt Glenwood standout Taylor Kaufman was the player to watch in this year’s 3A tournament. And the junior didn’t disappoint, striking out 10 batters and allowing only one run in seven innings of work as the Rams (30-7) beat Charles City, 4-1, for their first state title.
 
Kaufman also struck out 10 batters in the Rams’ 11-2 victory against Algona in the quarterfinals. In three games at the plate, he was 5-for-8 with four RBI.
 
State baseball odds and ends
 
*If any fans came to Principal Park to watch only the big schools play, they were treated to a snoozefest. Each of the seven Class 4A games was decided by at least seven runs and the average margin of victory was 10.
 
*Remsen St. Mary’s Tanner Kockler didn’t give his left arm for the Hawks’ 9-8 comeback win over top-ranked and defending champion Mason City Newman in the 1A semifinals, but he came pretty close. The senior hurler threw 185 pitches in the game – a total not helped by the 10 batters he walked and three he hit to put on base during the game.
 
*According to the Iowa High School Athletic Association, 30,448 fans crossed the turnstiles at Principal Park for the 28 tournament games. That’s the fourth-highest total in tournament history. The record of 33,699 was set in 2005, when the games were first played at Principal Park.
 
Football: For some teams, two-a-days begin this week
 
You read that headline correctly. Football season really is almost here. Class 4A schools in the western half of the state (including the Central Iowa Metro League) along with a very small number of other teams playing a week zero game (that’s the week of August 20) will begin non-contact practices – up to two sessions per day – on Wednesday. Those teams can then put on the pads for the first time Monday, August 9.
 
For the rest of the teams, whose first game isn’t until the week of August 27, drills without pads begin August 9 and hitting starts August 12.
 
The reason for the differing start dates is because there's an odd number of Class 4A football teams this year. A significant decrease in enrollment caused Newton to depart the CIML and drop down to a Class 3A district. That left 47 teams (an odd number) playing in the state’s largest class. To make scheduling work out evenly, CIML and Missouri River Conferences teams will start playing one week early and each team will have a bye week during the season. 
 
Des Moines-based Jamie DeMoney has covered high school sports and recruiting for more than 15 years. He is founder and editor of PrepNation.com. You can reach him at PrepNation@aol.com.

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