Late rally dooms Highland

In their second-ever program trip to state, Highland found itself in a hole very quickly.

In a Class 1A baseball state quarterfinal at Principal Park in Des Moines, St. Mary?s, Remsen, took a 4-0 lead after the first two frames. Highland wasn?t ready to back down, however.

A five-run fifth-inning gave them the lead, but another rally by St. Mary?s put them back in front, and they held on for a 10-5 victory, ending Highland?s season.

The Huskies finished the year with a 24-7 record, marked by the first state tournament appearance since 1984.

The game started tough for the Huskies, as they went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning, before St. Mary?s took its first crack.

The Hawks put the first four batters on base, scoring a run, before a sacrifice fly drove in the second run of the inning.

In the second inning, Highland was unable to get a base runner, and St. Mary?s continued to pour it on.

A hit batter, a walk forced a pitching change, and two more runs came around to score for the Hawks, putting the Huskies in a 4-0 hole.

The Highland offense settled down after that behind Billy Burton in relief, and after a couple of scoreless frames, Highland got their offense rolling.

A leadoff single followed by a walk put the Huskies in good position, before Jake Wood notched an RBI single to put Highland on the board.

Chase Rath followed that up with a two-RBI triple, before Burton notched an RBI double.

A pitching change for St. Mary?s stopped the bleeding, but not before the Huskies took a 5-4 lead.

St. Mary?s got a run back in the fifth inning on a play at the plate, which saw the Highland catcher lose the ball upon contact.

In the top of the sixth, Highland had two runners reach base on an error, but they were unable to capitalize.

St. Mary?s responded in the bottom of the sixth inning, using four hits to score five runs, and take a 10-5 lead.

The Huskies were shut down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh to end the game and their season.

Highland will return all but one athlete from this year?s team, as they will say goodbye to the lone senior on the squad, Spencer Wieland.

Wieland helped lead the team in average (.414), on-base percentage (.557) and stolen bases (53), while scoring 38 runs and notching 11 RBIs.