Onto the ‘Ship

CARROLL — “Remsen’s Going Down.”

That was the message on Lynnville-Sully’s white board heading into this season after last year’s 1-0 loss to Remsen St. Mary’s in the state semifinals.

Both baseball teams from Lynnville-Sully and Remsen St. Mary’s are back in the state tournament this season and they face off against each in the Class 1A state championship game after both teams won their semifinal games on Wednesday.

Fifth-ranked Lynnville-Sully got a solo homer from Corder Noun Harder and an impressive complete-game performance on the mound from Carson Maston during a 4-0 win over 1A No. 1 Akron-Westfield and fourth-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s outlasted third-ranked Mason City Newman Catholic, 7-4, in 14 innings at Merchants Park.

“After our game last year, we put on our white board at the beginning of the season, ‘Remsen’s going down,’” Noun Harder said. “Now we get another shot at them.

“This is what we’ve been dreaming for our whole lives. I’m so proud of the guys. Carson pitched one heck of a game. We made plays behind him, too. That’s a good team we took down there.”

Noun Harder drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and then stole his way around to third base. Maston made it 1-0 when he brought in Noun Harder on a sacrifice fly to center field.

That one run was enough for Maston, who went the distance on the mound and struck out 12 in the win. It was the Hawks’ fifth straight shutout and their seventh during their current 10-game win streak.

Maston (9-0) allowed no runs, five hits and three walks in seven innings. He needed 107 pitches and now has 98 strikeouts in 58 innings this summer.

“The slider and curve ball were keeping them off balance,” Maston said. “I was getting weak contact with those mostly. Those pitches were effective today.

“We’ve gotten early runs in every game this postseason it feels like. That plays to our advantage for sure.”

Both teams had five hits and Akron-Westfield (28-4) committed the game’s only error.

Lucas Sieck drew a lead-off walk and stole second in the second and Blake Van Wyk reached on an error in the third, but both runners were left stranded.

The Hawks got their first hit of the game in the fourth. Lannon Montgomery led off the frame with a double to the gap in left-center field. With two outs and two strikes, Terran Gosselink made it 2-0 when he shot a pitch from Ashton McCully to the opposite field in right.

After Gosselink stole second, he came around to score on Davis Utech’s RBI single.

Lynnville-Sully led 3-0 after four and the damage in the fourth was done by mostly players who did not start on last year’s state tournament team.

“I was looking fastball. He didn’t throw his curve ball enough for me to look for that pitch,” Utech said. “We had a consistent strike zone so we went up there knowing we had to swing and he finally threw me one that I could just poke one out there. I got a bat on it, and it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Gosselink said L-S head baseball coach Scott Alberts pulled him aside before his at-bat and told him to try to go to the opposite field.

“He jammed me inside, but I was able to push my hands to the right side of the field. I’m glad it found the hole,” Gosselink said. “Our team is really solid all around. It can be damaging to the other team knowing that a our whole team can hit.”

Noun Harder’s 1A-leading eighth homer led off the fifth. It was a no-doubt shot to right field and it extended the advantage to 4-0.

Noun Harder also leads the Hawks (27-3) with 88 total bases, 43 runs, 24 walks and 29 steals.

“I’ve been struggling to barrel up balls for a while,” Noun Harder said. “He gave me a high fastball. I knew it when I hit it. And putting one out at Merchants Park on this big field was a dream and to do this in the state tournament feels even better.”

The only other hit in the game came from Sieck in the sixth. Both teams struck out 12 times at the dish.

Maston allowed a single and a walk in the first but also struck out two and Noun Harder erased one Westerner trying to steal second.

The Hawk junior struck out two more in the second but also allowed one more single and one more walk. The Westerners went down in order in the third and fourth and were limited to just one hit in the sixth and seventh.

Akron-Westfield’s best threat came in the fifth. Maston allowed a one-out infield single and then walked the next batter to put two runners on base. He then got a fly ball to left field and ended the threat with a strikeout.

“How big have our pitchers been during this playoff stretch? They’ve been so sharp,” Alberts said. “Carson was spot on tonight. He was hitting his spots. Corder called such a great game behind the plate. We had a game plan and they executed it perfectly.”

Hayden Wahlberg had three of the Westerners’ five hits. McCully (7-1) allowed four earned runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out eight in five innings.

The fifth-ranked Hawks face fourth-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s in the 1A championship game at noon on Friday in Carroll. The RSM Hawks won 1-0 in last year’s state semifinal matchup.

“It feels so good. We’ve been working on this for a such a long time,” Alberts said. “The amount of time and effort that this group puts in collectively between the kids who are doing the work, the parents who are supporting them and the coaches who are there, to see them punch through was fun.”

Lynnville-Sully 2, Sigourney 0

Sigourney junior Caden Clarahan came into the quarterfinals of the 1A state baseball tournament batting .543 with six homers and 42 RBIs.

By the time Maston faced Clarahan in the sixth inning of a one-run game, he already had one hit and walked once.

But Maston was up to the challenge and his huge strikeout for the second out of the frame kept the Savages off the scoreboard and helped the 1A No. 5 Hawks eventually advance with a 2-0 victory at Merchants Park.

“That was a really big out. He was hitting the ball, making contact and putting up tough at-bats in the game,” Maston said. “He’s their best hitter, too. It was a tough out, and it was good we were able to get that one.”

Maston earned his third save of the season after tossing the final two frames of the contest. Sieck was brilliant on the bump in his 15th start of the season.

The Hawk duo combined to strike out Sigourney 15 times in the game and L-S registered its fourth straight shutout of the postseason.

At the dish, the Hawks were limited to three hits. But Montgomery’s RBI singles in the first and sixth were enough to push L-S to the state semifinals for the second straight season.

“It feels really good. They had a really good pitcher,” Noun Harder said. “The difference between last year and this year is it seemed like our team was just really calm throughout the whole game. It didn’t seem like when the game was close it bothered us. We’ve been in this game here and we’ve been in a lot of close games. I think our experienced helped us.”

Sigourney was playing in the state tournament for the first time in school history.

The Savages collected four hits in the loss but stranded seven runners on base. They left two on base against Sieck in the fourth and Maston stranded a pair of runners in each of his innings.

They also got out of the threats with strikeouts in each frame. Sigourney came into the game averaging only 6.36 strikeouts per game but fanned 15 times in the loss. Clarahan went down on strikes for only the eighth time in 72 at-bats.

“It was a good day. I think experience came into play today,” Sieck said. “They seemed nervous in the box. We just tried to attack them early. Carson pitched a great game, I was feeling good, too, and I knew the defense behind would make plays.”

Sieck (11-1) struck out the side in the first, but Clarahan also had a hard single with two outs.

The Hawk senior added two more strikeouts in the second and fourth and fanned the bottom of Sigourney’s lineup in the fifth.

Sieck allowed no runs on two hits and two walks and fanned 11 in five innings.

Maston surrendered no runs on two hits and one hit batter and fanned four against Sigourney.

“Both of those guys are throwing really well right now,” Alberts said. “And the defense is there behind them to make any plays they need to make, too.

“I think we had a pretty good game plan going in and how we wanted to pitch them. We did a good job of attacking their batters maybe even better than the first time we saw them.”

The Hawks improved to 2-0 against South Iowa Cedar League rival Sigourney this summer. L-S won the first meeting, 4-3, with a run in the bottom of the seventh.

Lynnville-Sully scored its first run in its first at-bat. Noun Harder drew a lead-off walk and went to third on a pair of wild pitches from Clarahan, who also is Sigourney’s ace pitcher.

CJ Nikkel reached on a fielder’s choice but Noun Harder was thrown out at home.

After Maston walked, Montgomery brought Nikkel around to score after hitting an 0-1 pitch for an RBI single. Clarahan limited the damage with an inning-ending double play though.

Clarahan (6-3) faced the minimum in the second, third and fourth and got out of trouble in the sixth.

Utech’s bloop single resulted in an out at second base and the inning ended on a fly ball to center field.

The Hawks did add to their lead in the sixth. The first two L-S batters were retired, but Maston’s single started the rally.

He was replaced on the bases by pinch runner Matthew Mintle, who went to second on a passed ball.

That brought Montgomery back to the plate and he delivered again. This time, his RBI single made it 2-0. It was his team-best 35th RBI of the season.

“We practiced with the pitching machine on 90 this week because he hit 89 the last time we faced him,” Montgomery said. “He was struggling a bit at the beginning. I think he slowed down the ball a little bit. It didn’t seem like the full him. I just tried to adjust to his adjustment of speed and made some good swings.”

Montgomery led the L-S offense with two hits and two runs, Maston had one hit and one walk and Noun Harder, Sieck and Jaiden Richards all walked once.

Nikkel scored his 39th run of the season and Mintle came around to score for the 28th time this summer. Van Wyk also was hit by a pitch.

While the Hawks were out-hit 4-3, they only struck out three times and drew four walks. L-S stranded five runners on base, including three in the sixth.

Alberts is confident his team’s offense will get going at some point in the tournament.

The Hawks are averaging 9.56 runs per game this summer but have been held to a combined six in the past three games.

“We’ll keep working on it. We put the ball in play a lot,” Alberts said. “But we ran ourselves out of some innings, too.

“We had a hit and run on once but didn’t swing the bat. There are some of those things that not everyone sees in the stands, but we knew we missed an opportunity there. We’ll get our bats going. I truly think you’ll see better offense from us throughout the rest of this tournament.”

Notes: Both teams committed one error in the game. … Clarahan allowed two earned runs on three hits, four walks and one hit batter. He fanned three in six frames. … Sieck’s 11 wins lead 1A and he lowered his earned run average to 1.20. He has 94 strikeouts in 64 1/3 innings. Maston’s three saves rank tied for fifth in 1A and he lowered his ERA to 1.10. Maston fanned Clarahan with a slider. “I was hitting my spots, and the curve ball was working,” Sieck said. “Experience has played a big factor. This was honestly the least nervous I’ve ever been before a game I was pitching in. It felt really good. I didn’t have many nerves until the later innings when I was in the outfield actually.”