Remsen St. Mary’s ended their season at the state baseball semifinal in nine innings by a final score of 5-3 to fourth seed Kee High.
Remsen St. Mary’s held onto a lead for most of the game after scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning. The inning started off with a pair of walks followed by an Isaiah Gerriets base hit to make it 1-0. Another Hawk run came in after Blaine Harpenau reached on an error with two outs.
Kee High had a quick response in the top of the third inning as Landon Reams reached on a two out walk and Tyson Cota drove him in on a triple into the left center field gap to make it 2-1.
The game remained 2-1 most of the way until the top of the seventh inning. Kee High loaded the bases with one out and Buddy Hill drove in the game’s tying run on a sacrifice fly to right field. That would lead us into extra inning baseball.
Kee High exploded for three runs in the top of the ninth inning thanks to three hits (one double) and an error. The Kee Hawks led 5-2 entering the bottom of the ninth.
Remsen St. Mary’s would not go down that easy. Remsen St. Mary’s got the tying run on the base paths in the bottom of the ninth. A Jonah Reinke wild pitch scored Brendan Fisch to make it 5-3 Kee High. Remsen St. Mary’s now had the tying run at second base, but two Hawk strikeouts followed to end the game.
Remsen St. Mary’s finished with three runs on 11 hits and left 15 runners on base. For Head Coach Dean Harpenau, he knows his team did not execute their offense the way they wanted.
Remsen St. Mary’s defense committed two errors in the game. Coach Harpenau says that Kee High was able to take advantage of those costly mistakes.
Remsen St. Mary’s came into the bottom of the ninth inning down three runs, but Coach Harpenau says his squad was never out of it until the game was over.
This senior class for Remsen St. Mary’s has done everything they can during their high school careers. These Hawk seniors made it to four boys state basketball tournaments, three football playoff appearances with a state championship, and made it to state baseball in five seasons. Coach Harpenau knows that this group of seniors will be missed by the whole community of Remsen.
Remsen St. Mary’s finish the year 27-4 overall and ends their season in the state semifinals for the fourth time in five seasons. Four-seed Kee High advances to the Class 1A State Title game tomorrow at 12:00 PM where they will be looking for their 12th state title in program history.
1A State Semifinals:
#2 Council Bluffs St. Albert 10 #6 Alburnett 0
2A State Semifinals:
#1 Van Meter 4 #4 Unity Christian 3
#2 Centerville 12 #3 Camanche 11
3A State Quarterfinals:
#4 Central DeWitt 11 #5 Waverly-Shell Rock 1
#1 Marion 11 #8 ADM 2
#2 Cedar Rapids Xavier 18 #7 MOC-Floyd Valley 3
#3 Dubuque Wahlert Catholic 4 #6 Winterset 1
