Knights season comes to an end in substate loss in Solon

 SOLON — Playing for their first trip to the state tournament in school history, the North Cedar baseball team gave fans one last memory of the 2020 season, after falling 7-5 to Burlington-Notre Dame in a Class 1A substate game on Wednesday, July 22. The Knights finish the season 7-8 and a postseason run unmatched across all classes. The Knights opened the postseason with a 7-2 win over Midland. Upset wins over No. 5 Alburnett 5-3 and No. 9 Easton Valley 3-1, both on the road gave North Cedar an opportunity to do something that no Knight summer ball team has been able to do since the school began in 1996. Advance to the state tournament.
 North Cedar scored in the top of the first inning. Jacob Wagner reached base on an error and would promptly steal second base. Wagner advanced to third on a wild pitch and was in prime scoring position with one out. Then, Ethan Sahr smacked a RBI single to give North Cedar a 1-0 lead. That lead held until the bottom of the third inning when Burlington-Notre Dame put up five runs to take a 5-1 lead. Burlington-Notre Dame batted around in the inning and had six straight batters reach base with one-out. The Nikes had four hits in the inning with three singles and a double.
 The Nikes added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to extend their lead to 6-1 on back-to-back doubles by Mitchell Brent, and a RBI double by Josh Smith. The Nikes added another run in the sixth to take a 7-1 lead, scoring on a Knight error. North Cedar didn’t quit and kept fighting back. The Knights pushed four runs across the plate in the top of the seventh inning to cut the Nikes lead to 7-5. The Knights had the tying runs on base at second and third and the go-ahead run at the plate, when the third out was recorded. North Cedar batted around in their batting order in the half inning. North Cedar had five straight batters reach base to begin the seventh in Gage Walshire, Tadan Lange, Tyler Thurston, Brennan Kreel, and James Garner. Kreel had a two-run double in the inning and Garner a RBI single to give North Cedar three of their four runs in the inning.
 North Cedar had seven hits in the game and had two players with multi-hit games. Ethan Sahr and Tadan Lange each were 2-for-4 to lead North Cedar batters. Other Knight hits came from Jacob Wagner RBI’s while Sahr, Tadan Lange, and Garner each had RBI’s in the game. North Cedar were issued six walks in the game. Wagner had two walks as did James Garner, while Kreel and Tyler Jackson each reached base via a walk.
 Three North Cedar pitchers pitched in the game. Ethan Sahr started and took the loss. He went three innings and struck out four, walked three, and gave up five runs on five hits. Cole Miller pitched 1 ⅓ innings in relief of Sahr and gave up a run on one hit. Tadan Lange pitched 1 ⅔ innings
in relief giving up one run on no hits.
 Burlington Notre Dame had eight hits in the game, but had only one player with a multi-hit game. Jeron Conner was 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead the Nikes. Drew Chiprez, Trenton Blythe, Brady Oleson, and Josh Smith each had RBI hits. Jeron Conner was the winning pitcher after giving up one-run on three hits and striking out nine batters. The Knights did their damage against relief pitcher Josh Smith who gave up four North Cedar runs in the top of the seventh inning.
 The Nikes played four games to get to the state tournament. They beat three Southeast Iowa Super
Conference teams in a row to get to the substate game with North Cedar. Burlington-Notre Dame beat Winfield-Mt. Union 20-0 in the first round on July 11 and followed that up with a 17-7 win over Lone Tree three nights later on July 14. The Nikes beat New London 6-4 in a Class 1A District Final on July 18 before playing North Cedar in the substate game. North Cedar beat three teams to get to the substate round including two, top-10 ranked Class 1A teams. North Cedar beat Midland in the first round, them beat No. 5 Alburnett, and No. 9 Easton Valley in consecutive games to advance to the substate game.