Iowa City West falls behind early, never quite catches up to Dowling in state baseball semifinal loss

DES MOINES — It's hard to catch the game sometimes, especially when you're talking about it being the Class 4A state tournament semifinals. Ask Iowa City West.

The Trojans never did quite catch West Des Moines Dowling, getting behind early, rallying but falling, 8-3, Friday night at Principal Park.

'We'll go and say goodbye to a lot of class, really good guys,' said West Coach Charlie Stumpff, still chasing that elusive first state title.

Stumpff has over 700 career wins and has lost the 4A championship game five times in the last nine years. West's string of qualifying for it comes to an end at three.

'Tomorrow, the next day, we'll start going back to work,' Stumpff said. 'The cupboard's not bare, we hope to be fine. We're just graduating so many top-notch, all-time best type of guys at West. We'll show up next year to play, but, boy, we're sure going to miss those guys.'

Guys like Izaya Ono-Fullard, Connor McCaffery and Nate Disterhoft, multiple-year starters for one of the state's best programs. A McCaffery double scored Disterhoft in the sixth inning, with a Tony Comellas RBI single past third base scoring McCaffery a couple of batters later as West (32-9) got within 5-3.

Comellas eventually stole second base with two outs and was the tying run, but Lucas Karwal's flyball down the right-field line was tracked down by Dowling's Peyton Krugler to end the inning. The Maroons (36-8) added three humongous insurance runs in the bottom half for the final margin.

'We were going to do that,' McCaffery said of the comeback. 'We've got guys, we were going to put up a fight. I trust our hitters one through nine. Karwal put a good piece on it there in the sixth. Their right fielder just had a good read on it.'

'That's who we are, a great group of guys. Tough minded,' Stumpff said. 'One hit away, Karwal gives it a ride, they just made the play.'

Dowling scored twice in the first inning against West starting pitcher Jack Wilson and extended its lead to 5-0 with three unearned runs in the third. The first of those came across on a Zach Roering sacrifice fly to right, though it wasn't as clear cut as it sounds.

McCaffery's very strong throw went directly to catcher Comellas, who appeared to tag the runner before he crossed the plate. The home-plate umpire disagreed, ruling safe.

Dowling lefty pitcher Colin Lacey didn't allow a baserunner until Ono-Fullard walked with one out in the fourth. Logan Sims got West's first hit, a triple, to lead off the fifth.

Lacey didn't overpower, but continually pounded the outside corner with his breaking ball. West finished with just four hits.

'He pitched a great game. Props to him, he shut us down, and not many pitchers in the state have done that,' said Ono-Fullard. 'I think the first inning, we were trying to see pitches and see what he was doing. He was throwing that back-door curve, and the ump was giving it to him. We could have done a better job of fighting that pitch off, because I think we had a lot of strikeouts looking.'

Lacey struck out four, including a pair looking.

'I don't throw overly hard, so I have to have another pitch to go to,' Lacey said.

Wilson was replaced by Connor Greer to begin the second inning for West, with Austin West relieving him in the third. Dowling's Robbie McCargar went 3-for-3, then was intentionally walked with two outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the sixth.

Naturally, Lyle Fini followed with a two-run single. Just one of those games for West.

One in which it couldn't quite catch all the way up.

'It started in the first inning, really, honestly, when their five hitter check swings a ball down the right-field line (for a RBI),' McCaffery said. 'That kind of gets us down from the beginning. We're fighting back, fighting back, calls don't go our way. We tried to put together some good at-bats, but it just doesn't work out for us.'

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