State title baseball games set for 1A, 2A

DES MOINES (AP) — Get ready for a rematch in Class 2A baseball. Defending champion Cherokee and Davenport Assumption won semifinal games Thursday and will meet for the title on Saturday, the second straight year they’ve faced off on the final day of the season. Cherokee beat the Knights 5-4 for last year’s championship and will be trying to become the first repeat champion in 2A since Lansing Kee won three in a row from 1989-91. The Braves (30-1) advanced with a 6-2 victory over Solon, scoring four times in the fifth inning to break a 2-2 tie. Assumption beat St. Ansgar 7-0 behind Jared McIntosh’s one-hit pitching to reach the finals for the 10th time. The Knights (34-8) have won seven championships, the last in 2006. Kyle Ruehle went 2-for-3 to lead Cherokee, which has lost only to 4A Sioux City East. Ruehle scored twice and broke the tie with a two-run single against Solon’s drawn-in infield, slapping the ball just out of second baseman Marshall Koehn’s reach. Tim Jones followed with a sacrifice fly and the final run scored on an error. Solon (33-10) took a 2-1 lead on Cody Strang’s two-run double in the third. Cherokee tied it in the bottom of the third when Tyler Jones singled and came all the way around to score on third baseman Ryne Brimeyer’s throwing error.

Class 1A It certainly wasn’t North Sentral Kossuth’s sharpest game of the year, but the Eagles will take it. After all, they’re going to the state championship game. Aaron Siefken pitched a one-hitter and Nick Larson drove in three runs as North Sentral Kossuth beat defending champion Iowa Mennonite 6-0 on Thursday night in the Class 1A semifinals. The Eagles (35-6) snapped Iowa Mennonite’s 21-game winning streak and will play Gilbertville Don Bosco for the state title on Saturday. Don Bosco (30-3) advanced with a 7-4 victory over Mason City Newman. While it’s the first championship game appearance for the combined North Sentral Kossuth program, North Kossuth won state titles in 1996 and 1997 and Sentral of Fenton finished second in 2006. Siefken struck out 10 in shutting down an IMS team that came into the state tournament hitting .395. But Iowa Mennonite (31-2) had plenty of baserunners because the Eagles committed five errors, Siefken walked three and he hit a batter. Only one runner got as far as third, however, and Iowa Mennonite didn’t get its hit until Danny Hershberger blooped a single into right field in the sixth inning.