March 29, 2024

Hawks fall to Tigers in 1A district semifinal

SULLY — Two days after posting their first postseason victory in seven years, Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks challenged Iowa Valley’s Tigers in a Class 1A District 11 semifinal game Thursday. The Hawk baseball team came up short of advancing in the tournament, losing 4-2.

“It was a really good baseball game tonight. I’m very proud of our kids,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Bob Scandridge said. “That’s a very good Iowa Valley team, and our guys battled right to the end. We had a lot of positive things come out of tonight’s game and the season as a whole.”

The Hawks and Tigers are very familiar foes coming out of the South Iowa Cedar League. Iowa Valley (18-6) was second in the SICL regular season and Lynnville-Sully (14-12) finished in a bunch of 12-7 and 12-8 teams fitting into the third through six spots in the conference.

Lynnville-Sully out hit Iowa Valley, nine hits to seven hits, in the game. The Hawks made strong defensively plays, which included catching two Tiger runners in rundowns between third and home for outs.

“We just couldn’t string enough together, especially hits at times we had base runners,” Scandridge said.

Iowa Valley, which was the home team on the scoreboard, scored the first run of the game in the third inning. It could have been more, but the Hawk defense delivered the two rundowns in the inning.

It was a 1-1 game, when the Tigers strung things together to score three runs in the fourth inning.

Lynnville-Sully had tied the game up in the top of the frame on a one-out single by senior Caleb James and a balk moving James to second base followed by RBI base hit by junior Kobe Fisk. Fisk was tagged out trying to go to second on the play. The Hawks had two more singles in the inning. The scoring threat ended on a fly ball out.

Iowa Valley’s Gavin Collingwood and Andrew Henry had back-to-back singles to right field with one gone in the bottom of the fourth. Henry ended up at second on a throw to third base on the play. Josh Jordan ripped out a two-run base hit and scored on a single by Dylan Healey.

With two gone in the fourth, Scandridge made a pitching change. Sophomore Tyler Van Zante gave way to James. Van Zante stayed in the game at shortstop. James began working with two on and got Austin Schlabach to pop up to Van Zante.

The Tigers were up 4-1.

Lynnville-Sully responded with a single to right field by freshman Elijah Collins to start the fifth inning. Caden Dunsbergen, the Hawks’ sophomore catcher, singled. Iowa Valley won an appeal for an out as it was ruled Collins missed second base running from first to third on the play.

Van Zante kept the rally alive with a base hit and James delivered an RBI double, which chased Iowa Valley starting pitcher Gavin Collingwood from the mound. The Tigers brought in eighth-grader Ryan Becker, who shut the Hawks down for the next 2 1/3 innings.

Becker struck out Fisk to end the fifth, leaving the Hawks behind 4-2. Becker retired all seven batters he faced, recording four strikeouts. Collingwood got the win, going 4 2/3 innings and giving up two runs on nine hits and a balk and striking out three.

“We played well defensively tonight,” Scandridge said.

In the sixth inning, with one on and no outs, Caden Dunsbergen made a diving catch of a short bunt in the air by Josh Jordan. After making the catch, Dunsbergen made a quick throw to junior Kyle Van Dyke at first to double off Henry for a double play. Fisk had a diving play in center field to end the second inning.

Van Zante (6-2) took the loss for the Hawks. He was charged with four runs on seven hits, four walks and a balk and struck out five in 3 2/3 innings of work. James pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless and hitless ball. He issued one walk and struck out one batter.

James led the offense with a single and a double. Collins hit two singles. Hitting a single each for the Hawks were Dunsbergen, Van Zante, Fisk Baker Zegers and Noah Engle.

Lynnville-Sully has seen steady improvement the past two season (26-23) after going 5-20 in 2013. The Hawks lose four seniors — James, Lucas Smith, Zegers and Jake Brand — to graduation.

On Tuesday, the Hawks notched a 6-5 win over Colo-NESCO to advance in the postseason for the first in seven years.

“That win is a tribute to how hard these kids have worked to move the program forward, as is they way they played tonight,” Scandridge said. “We have kids who love to play baseball and are willing to do the work to improve our program.”

It will be an all-SICL district championship game as conference champion BGM defeated Belle Plaine, 4-2, in Brooklyn Thursday. BGM and Iowa Valley square off at 7 p.m. Saturday in Sully. The winner plays the District 12 champion Tuesday in Pella.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com