Remsen St. Mary’s baseball won a state semifinal for the record books on Wednesday night in Carroll. The Hawks defeated Newman Catholic 7-4 in 14 innings marking the longest IHSAA state tournament baseball game in history. It also sends Remsen St. Mary’s to their third consecutive championship game.
The game lasted over four-and-a-half hours from start to finish and featured over 100 at-bats with nearly 400 pitches thrown. This was the epitome of a game won by a team, and head coach Dean Harpenau says his team had so many players step up.
After some big hits in regulation including two runs scoring on a pinch-hit by Ty Tritz in the sixth with the aid of an error as well, the Hawks entered extra innings and could not get much going. Both teams went scoreless in the eighth and were about to get things going for the ninth when the game went into 55-minute lightning delay. Coach Harpenau says he challenged the guys to keep the energy up out of the delay.
Braxton Kneip had three hits in seven at-bats in the win with some nice defensive plays to help out the cause. He says everyone was fired up to get things going once the delay was over.
Landon Waldschmitt gave Remsen St. Mary’s five strong innings on the mound, and Daenon Loucks gave them another solid two to finish regulation. Dalton Klein was called on to pitch the eighth and ended up throwing the next six innings all the way through the 13th inning. He says his mentality did not change even going much deeper into the outing than he anticipated.
The Hawks finally got things rolling in the top of the 14th inning. Collin Homan reached on an error, was bunted over to second base, and Dalton Klein picked up a hit to put Homan at third. Then came Braxton Kneip who blooped one over the first baseman to score Homan and give the Hawks the first lead of extra innings. Kneip says he was full of confidence with the game on the line.
Coach Harpenau says the hit was not the initial plan, but it worked out in the Hawks’ favor.
Brady Koenck would drive in both Braxton Kneip and Dayton Kneip who was running for Dalton Klein with a hit that provided an insurance policy. Daenon Loucks came back out in the 14th and shut things down to record the save. Dalton Klein’s outing went six innings and was brilliant with just four hits allowed and one intentional walk. After a rough outing on Monday against North Linn, Klein says he had to move past it and get back to work in this outing.
Coach Harpenau says this outing will do a lot for his future since Klein is only an eighth grader.
The Hawks improved to 25-4 by winning the longest state tournament game in the history of Iowa High School Baseball. They are back in the state championship game for the third year in a row trying to win their second-straight championship. Coach Harpenau says this was not where most people expected his team to be, but he knew they had it in them as the postseason went along.
Remsen St. Mary’s will take on Lynnville-Sully for the Class 1A State Championship at noon on Friday. KLEM will have coverage of the game starting at 11:45 with a pregame show.
