Iowa Mennonite offense overcomes Highland

BURLINGTON - In a season of lasts, the Iowa Mennonite School baseball team hopes to end with a first.

IMS, which will unveil a new school name and mascot at an open house July 30, is one win away from claiming its third straight district championship and playing in a substate final for the chance to advance to state.

IMS put on an offensive display in Tuesday's 14-5 rout of Highland in a Class 1A district semifinal at Notre Dame High School's Winegard Field.

IMS pounded out 11 hits and got a solid pitching effort from Eli Ours to advance to the district final for the third straight year.

IMS (13-7) will play Pekin (15-8) in a district final at 7 p.m. Saturday at Burlington Notre Dame. Pekin advanced with a 10-4 win over Notre Dame in Tuesday's second semifinal game.

IMS and Pekin split a pair of SEI Superconference North Division games during the season, but IMS won the rubber game, the one that mattered most.

'We beat them once before and then we lost to them,” said IMS senior catcher Blake Bontrager, who was 2 for 5 with a home run. 'We knew that this is the tournament, so it's either win or go home. We knew we had to come in and dominate and that's really what we did from the beginning.”

'Great job offensively of coming out scoring early and really maintaining that throughout the game, that aggressive approach at the plate,” IMS coach Danny Hershberger said. 'We were hitting our pitches hard and putting pressure on them to make the plays and throw tough pitches. I'm really proud of how the guys hit the ball.”

Highland (13-11) had runners on the corners with one out in the top of the first, but Ours got Jacob Leonard to fly out to short right field and got Trevor McFarland to fly out to left field to wriggle out of the early jam.

It was that kind of night for the Huskies, who stranded 10 runners in the game, six in scoring position, and had two runners thrown out on the bases in the fifth inning.

'Just timely hits, things like that, that was our bugaboo today in terms of not having that timely hit,” Highland coach Seth Milledge said. 'A couple of those get down, a couple different approaches with the stick and I think we can get back in that game. We put a little more pressure on IMS. But they seemed to have an answer. Every time we scored a run they scored two or three. It seemed to be their day. We'll try to get better as we move into next year.”

Noah Miller and Ours drew walks from Highland starter Chase Schultz and Bontrager followed with a run-scoring single in the first inning. Jacob Boller chased home Ours with a groundout and Kobe Borntrager singled in courtesy runner Kake Rempel to give IMS a quick 3-0 lead.

IMS would never look back.

'I feel like we knew we had to come out firing. They threatened a little bit in their top half of the inning. We knew we had to get on top and stay there the whole game and that's what we did,” Bontrager said.

Bontrager had the key hit in the second inning, singling in Luke Schrock and Miller as IMS stretched its lead to 5-0.

'I just knew that I could get the job done and I did. That's all it is, basically,” Bontrager said.

'Blake really came through with a couple big hits to get those RBIs and hit the ball hard early,” Hershberger said. 'It's a huge momentum thing for us to be able to grab the momentum right away. Blake was the one who started that off, so great job by him.”

Highland scored single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, then added two more in the sixth. Brody Burton had a sacrifice fly in the third, Luke Miller singled in a run in the fourth, Trevor McFarland singled in a run in the fifth and Leonard singled in a pair in the sixth.

'We certainly didn't help ourselves early,” Milledge said. 'One thing I will say about our guys is we are never going to quit. When we come back we're going to keep playing. I think we did that well. As low as it got there, our guys aren't going to quit. They kept battling through. I'm proud of them in that aspect. Obviously we ended up short there at the end, but it is what it is.”

IMS scored four runs in the fourth to gain some breathing room. Drew Blauvelt, Schrock and Noah Miller each drove in runs.

Noah Miller would add a two-run triple in the sixth and pitched the final three outs to end the game.

Boller made two sensational running catches in the alley in left-center field and also assisted on a putout in the fifth to keep the Huskies at bay.

'He's a senior and he steps up at this time of year,” Hershberger said of Boller. ”This is his time of year that he likes to play. He came away with some really good plays that saved some runs for us. It's huge when a team thinks they have a hit to score some runs and an outfielder takes it away. Great job by Jacob Boller out there in left field.”

IMS now will look for its third straight district championship against a familiar opponent.

'We've been there before and we can get past it again,” Bontrager said.

'It's exciting to keep playing. We want to play as long as we can,” Hershberger said. 'We are happy we're going back to a district final. It's fun to play those games. That's why we practice so hard. That's why we play so hard. It's to have opportunities to play in the district final.”

Mid-Prairie 11, West Liberty 1

The Golden Hawks (18-11) started their Class 2A postseason with a District 6 home win that ended in the sixth inning on the mercy rule. West Liberty ends its season at 11-15.

Aidan Rath and Brody Miller went a combined 4 for 6 with five RBI at the plate for the Hawks. Brad Tornow had 13 K's and no walks.

'I thought we played with great urgency and I'm glad we did,” Mid-Prairie coach Andy Greiner said. 'The run production keeps our pitchers fresh and available for Saturday.”

In a district final Saturday in Wellman at 7 p.m., Mid-Prairie plays West Branch (18-7). The two teams split a doubleheader earlier this season. That winner will play the winner of Camanche (16-12) and Dyersville Beckman (25-12) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a substate final for the right to go to state.