April 25, 2024

CMB comes up short against defending 2A champs

By Troy Hyde
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Collins-Maxwell/Baxter sophomore Creighton Caple attempts to tag out North Polk’s Brett Haun at first base during the Raiders’ 4-3 loss to the Comets in a Class 2A District 14 championship game in Ogden. Caple had a hit and a walk in the loss. (Troy Hyde)

OGDEN — The Collins-Maxwell/Baxter baseball team was one pitch, one swing and one at-bat away from knocking off the Class 2A defending champions on Saturday night.

The Raiders trailed by one and had the bases loaded with one out in their final at-bat, but North Polk starter Blake Brauer finished his complete-game effort with back-to-back strikeouts and the Comets escaped with a 4-3 win in the 2A District 14 championship game featuring two teams from the Heart of Iowa Conference.

Brauer needed 134 pitches to complete the victory, but the Comets’ senior ace rebounded from a poor first inning and stranded the bases loaded in the fifth and seventh to improve to 6-2 on the year.

“The way we started off, I thought we’d be OK, but he is their ace and pitched like it tonight,” CMB coach Max Seeman said. “We just hit a slump in the middle innings and that hurt us.”

Brady Stover had two hits and two runs to highlight the offense, and he helped key the Comets at four runs after tossing four scoreless innings in relief. Stover allowed four hits and walked two while striking out six in the no decision.

CMB, which played the game without starting outfielder Brad Ritter, plated two runs in the first inning following a lead-off double by Stover, an RBI double by Seth Balke and an RBI single by Spencer Gauch.

But the Comets came right back in their half of the first and took the lead with a three-run inning that featured several soft base hits that found holes against Balke, who started and took the loss on the mound.

“They hit the ball where we weren’t really. They were little bloopers for the most part,” Balke said.

Brett Haun singled with one out in the second and scored on Brauer’s RBI sacrifice fly. That made it 4-2 and proved to be the game-winner.

North Polk, now winners in six of its last seven games, stranded two runners on base in each of the first four innings and left 10 on in all.

After allowing a two-run first inning, Brauer surrendered one base runner in the second and had 1-2-3 frames in the third and fourth.

The Raiders had the bases loaded with one out in both the fifth and seventh innings but failed to score both times.

“We had the guys up that we wanted up in the last inning,” Seeman said. “We just couldn’t get the big hit.”

The third run from CMB came in the seventh before the bases were filled.

Stover had a one-out infield single, Hunter McWhirter reached on an error and Balke got another RBI with a single. Brady Kemp collected a bunt single to load the bases, but Brauer fanned two straight to end it.

“It’s bittersweet. It’s great to get this far. This is the furthest I have ever gotten with this team. It’s hard to be done though,” said Balke, who had two hits and two RBIs at the plate. “That’s the closest this team has come to beating North Polk in my five years. We had some really fun moments this year.”

Creighton Caple had a single and a walk for CMB, which ended its season at 10-15.

The loss to North Polk snapped a four-game winning streak.

Brauer struck out 10 in his win on the mound. Brauer, Matt Antle and Luke Leopold all had two hits each for the Comets.

North Polk (18-16) faces another HOIC foe in Roland-Story (24-14) in the substate final at 7 p.m. Saturday. Both teams played in the state tournament last year.