MILES — The North Cedar Knight baseball team is going where no other Knight baseball
team has been before, the doorstep of the state baseball tournament. After three wins last week in Class 1A postseason
district play, North Cedar sits one-win from school history.
The trip along the way has been historical in its own right, with three postseason wins for the first time in school history. Two of those wins were against state ranked, top-10 teams. North Cedar beat Midland to start their tournament trail on Monday, July 13 with a 7-2 win. The Knights upset Class 1A No. 5 Alburnett 5-3 in Alburnett to advance to the district final. In the district final game on Saturday,
July 18, North Cedar beat No. 9 Easton Valley 3-1 to advance
to the school’s first substate
game. The Knights will play West Burlington-Notre Dame with the winner going to the state tournament on Friday, July 24 or Saturday, July 25.
Knights Early Lead Holds Up In Upset Over No. 5 Alburnett
ALBURNETT — Twenty-four hours after their postseason opening win over Midland, the Knights were back in Alburnett to take on the 5th ranked Pirates in a district semifinal. There, the Knights beat the ranked Pirates 5-3. The Knights win was their first in the last four games played between the schools.
Ethan Sahr kept the Pirates off balance all night and got the pitching win. He improved to 3-1 with the win after working 5 ⅔ innings. Sahr struck out three and walked three and gave up three runs on five hits. Tyler Thurston pitched the final 1 ⅓ innings in relief to get the save. He allowed no runs on no hits.
North Cedar scored three runs in the top of the first inning behind their first five batters reaching base. Jacob Wagner led off the game with a triple and scored on a Tyler Jackson
single for a 1-0 North Cedar lead. Ethan Sahr singled, sending Jackson to second. Gage Walshire singled to load the bases. Then Tadan Lange came up with a big timely hit, a single, scoring both Jackson and courtesy runner Devonte Crist who was running for Sahr. Those runs gave the Knights a 3-0 lead, stunning the home Pirates and their fans. That score stood over the next four innings until North Cedar scored twice in the fifth to extend their lead to 5-0. The Knights nearly batted
around and got RBI singles from Brennen Kreel scoring Walshire for a 4-0 lead, and James Garner, scoring Lange for a 5-0 lead.
Alburnett struggled to get off Alburnett struggled to get offense going in the first four innings.
The Pirates were retired in order in two innings and sent only four batters to the plate the other two innings. Alburnett scored their only runs in the bottom of the sixth, pushing three runs across the plate to cut the Knights lead to 5-3. The Pirates got the tying runs on base in the bottom of the seventh,
but could not score.
The Knights outhit Alburnett 11 to 6 in the game. Three Knights had multi-hit games. Gage Walshire was 3-for-4 with three singles and a run scored. Jacob Wagner and Sahr each had two hits. Other Knight hits came from Tyler Jackson, Tadan Lange, Brennen Kreel, and James Garner.
Alburnett had their six hits among three players - Hunter Caves, Kale Rose, and Shane Neighbor. Caves and Rose led the Pirates in hits with 31 and 26. Kale Rose took the loss after giving up three runs on five hits. Hunter Caves pitched the final seven innings and gave up two runs on six hits while striking
out six.
Bats Come Alive Late To Give Knights Postseason Opening Win
ALBURNETT — The North Cedar Knights bats came alive late in their postseason opener on Monday, July 13 against the Midland Eagles. The Knights had three of their seven hits in the ball game helping to lead to six of the Knights runs in a 7-2 win over the Eagles.
Ethan Sahr, Chase Miller, and Tyler Thurston combined to limit Midland to two runs on three hits. The trio struck out five batters in the game. Sahr started the game, Thurston was the winning pitcher after working the last two innings of the game. Alex Smith started for Midland and gave up one-run on four hits and struck out four in 2 ⅓ innings. Jensen Dodge took the loss after working 4 ⅔ innings. Dodge struck out seven and gave up six of the seven Knight runs.
North Cedar had seven hits in the game. Tyler Jackson and Sahr each were 2-for-4 while Tadan Lange and Tyler Thurston each had hits. Lange and Thurston tied for the RBI lead in the game with three each. Jacob Wagner and Gage Walshire also reached base via walks.
Midland scored a run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. North Cedar tied the score pushing across an unearned run in the third to knot the score at 1-1. Midland grabbed the lead right back with a run in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. That score held for nearly three innings.
In the top of the sixth, North Cedar scored three runs to take a 4-2 lead. Midland hit two Knight batters to lead off the sixth as Gage Walshire and Tadan Lange got free passes to reach base. Then, Tyler Thurston connected and smashed a three-run home run to give North Cedar the lead. In the top of the seventh, the Knights put the game away with three more runs. Tadan Lange drilled a towering 3-run home run to left centerfield scoring Tyler Jackson who singled and Walshire who walked earlier in the inning. That hit, gave the Knights a comfortable 7-2 lead, which would be the final score.
No comments:
Post a Comment