Linn-Mar throws the leather, sweeps Jefferson

MARION – At one point in the second game, Linn-Mar third baseman Taylor Yoke dove to his left in an attempt to snare a line drive.

The ball popped in and out of his glove, though he recovered quickly, picked it up and threw to first base. The Cedar Rapids Jefferson runner appeared to beat the throw but was ruled out.

Call it a reward for a double-header of defensive excellence. The Class 4A ninth-ranked Lions made every play they should have, a couple they maybe shouldn't have and swept second-ranked Cedar Rapids Jefferson in a pair of 3-1 games at Lowe Park.

'Outstanding,” said Linn-Mar's Manny Jeffery. 'It feels really good pitching and knowing that everyone in the field has your back.”

'It's definitely the best we've played,” said Linn-Mar's Adam Stolley. 'Especially the past few double-headers, we've been kicking the ball around. But tonight we were locked in. We had everything going.”

Linn-Mar (16-6) went the full 14 innings without committing an error. If Yoke's outstanding effort didn't sum things up perfectly, try early in the opener, when Lions catcher Brandt Ollinger went behind home plate to snag a foul ball, slipped straight to his back but still caught it.

That ended an inning in which Jefferson (19-6) loaded the bases with none out but didn't score. That kind of night for the J-Hawks.

'We hit the ball at times right at them. And at times, our approaches were just not there,” said Jeff Coach Kyle Rodenkirk. 'Saturday (against Dubuque Senior), we hit the snot out of the ball, but the last guy we saw was a knuckleballer. So I don't know if that messed up our timing or what. Tip your cap to their pitchers. They kept us off balance all night. Our guys said their pitches were exploding really well halfway there. We just couldn't get anything going.”

Jeffery threw a complete-game six-hitter in the opener and drove in the first run with an RBI double in the third. Sam Crawford was just as strong in Game 2, giving up just four hits and a run in 5 1/3 innings.

Jake Brandt took over for him, pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and struck out the side in the seventh for the save. Stolley had five hits in the double-header.

'Just hitting spots was really big for us,” Jeffery said. 'We don't overpower a whole lot of kids, so it's just getting multiple pitches over the plate and hitting the locations we need to hit.”

And playing great defense helps, too, of course.

'It was just fun to watch and see the kids play well,” said Linn-Mar Coach Chad Lechner. 'That's as good as we've played. We're capable of that, you always hope you play clean on defense. We seem to be getting better. And we needed to against a team like Jeff. If you don't give your best effort, you're not going to beat them.”

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