Durant baseball team back at state for first time since 2003

 MAQUOKETA — The Durant Wildcats punched their ticket to the 2020 Class 2A State tournament with a 6-0 win over Monticello on Tuesday, July 21 in a substate game in Maquoketa. The Wildcats will return to the state tournament for the first time since 2003 and for the fourth time in school history. Durant also has state trips from 1996 and 1979 to the program’s history. Durant improved to 12-4 with the win. The Wildcats will be joined at state by fellow River Valley Conference South division member Mid-Prairie. The sixth ranked Golden Hawks beat Central Lee in another 2A substate game. One-fourth of the state field will be schools from the RVC.
 Durant enters the state tournament as the seven seed in the Class 2A tournament. Durant will play the second seed, and 2019 2A champion, North Linn (18-2) at 4:30 on Monday, July 27. North Linn is ranked No. 2 in Class 1A. Five of the eight teams in the 2A state field are top-10 ranked teams. They are No. 1 Van Meter, No. 2 North Linn, No. 3 Dike-New Hartford, No. 6 Mid-Prairie, and No. 9 West Lyon. The other teams in the state field are Des Moines Christian, Durant, and Treynor. The winner of that game will play the winner of third seeded Dike-New Hartford (15-3) and sixth seeded Des Moines Christian (15-6) on Thursday, July 30 in the mid-to-late afternoon at either 4:30 or 7:30 in a 2A state semifinal. The Class 2A state championship game is scheduled for Saturday, August 1 at 1:30.
 The Wildcats got another gem of an outing from ace pitcher Nate Dierickx. The junior hurler pitched a complete game shutout, scattering six hits. He struck out seven batters and walked one. Dierickx is turning in quite a season. Entering state, he has a record of 6-0 in 35 innings pitched with a 0.20 (1-earned run). He has 42 strikeouts and had issued only six walks. He has five shutouts in his six starts.
Durant had 10 hits in the game with three players having multi-hit games. Nolan and Drew DeLong and Logan Callison each had two hits. The trio combined to bat 6-for-12 with two RBI’s and two runs scored. Other hits for Durant came from Ben Orr, Aydin Flockhart, Lucas Callison, and Jake Willkomm. Orr, Brendan Paper, Ethan Gast, and Willkomm each had a RBI in the game. The Wildcats stole five bases in the game with Nolan DeLong and Aydin Flockhart each with two, and Drew DeLong with one stolen base.
 Durant had to win four games to get to the state tournament, all against River Valley Conference
teams. Durant beat Northeast 7-0 to begin the postseason on July 11. The Wildcats changed their trajectory with a big upset over 2A No. 9 Camanche at Camanche
 3-0 three days later on July 14. That win gave the Wildcats confidence that they could reach Des Moines. The Wildcats then won maybe the biggest game in program history in the last 15 years with a 15-5 10-run mercy rule victory over Iowa City Regina, at Iowa City Regina on July 18 in a Class 2A District Final. That win, advanced the Wildcats to the Sweet-16 teams remaining in the tournament. Then, the Wildcats beat the Panthers to advance to state. The Panthers had to win only two games to get to the substate game. Monticello’s wins however, came against two rivals that have had their number. The Panthers beat Cascade 6-3 in the district semifinal game, and then beat Dyersville-Beckman for the first time since 2009 with a 6-5 win in a 2A District Final. The Panthers were looking for their first trip to state in school history against Durant. The win by the Wildcats was their third straight over Monticello. The win also tied the series record between the teams at 4-4 in eight meetings since 2014.
After a scoreless opening inning,
 Durant scored twice in the top of the second to take a 2-0 lead. Durant nearly batted
around in the inning, sending seven batters to the plate in the inning. Aydin Flockhart reached base on a one-out single and went to second when Brendan Paper walked to give Durant two baserunners. Both would score. Flockhart on a RBI hit by Ethan Gast, and Paper on a RBI single by Jake Willkomm. Durant extended their lead to 3-0 in the top of the sixth inning. There, a Paper
RBI sac fly, scored Flockhart who had reached base on a fielder’s choice. Durant put the game away in the top of the seventh. There, the Wildcats had three straight two-out, RBI hits from Drew DeLong, Ben Orr, and Logan Callison. DeLong and Callison singled and Orr doubled. Nolan and Drew DeLong and courtesy runner Drake Shelangoski scored all of the runs to push the Durant lead to 6-0. The Wildcats slammed the door on the Panthers in the bottom of the seventh.
 Nate Dierickx got the first Panther batter of the inning to fly out. Dierickx struck out the second batter of the inning for two quick outs. Dierickx gave up a two-out single, but came back and struck out the next batter to end the game and send him and his teammates to Principal Park this week for the state tournament.
 Monticello had six hits in the game with two players collecting most of the hits. Justin Recker was 3-for-3 and Preston Ries was 2-for-3 to lead the Panthers. The Panthers left seven runners on base in the game. The Panthers used three pitchers in the game. Starter Caleb Sauser had a good game in his own right over six innings logged. Sauser gave up three runs on six hits and struck out one and walked two. Jeff Carlson and Tate Petersen combined to pitch the final top of the seventh where they gave up three runs on four hits.