Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Dylan Davis ranks among Iowa’s best in home runs and RBIs

CEDAR RAPIDS — Dylan Davis ignores statistics.

Varsity Bound, the database for Iowa’s high school sports teams, has been removed from his phone. The Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior has no interest in averages, rankings or any other metric. His only concern is contributing to the team.

“I don’t look at the stats. I haven’t looked at stats for a long time now,” Davis said. “I deleted the app to look at those. I just go out there and work for the rest of the guys.”

Davis’ name can easily be found among the state leaders in home runs and runs driven in this season. He is tied for fourth in the state with 11 homers, sitting one back of a trio of leaders, and remains eighth with 51 RBIs. The Cougars’ doubleheader with Class 3A sixth-ranked Dubuque Wahlert at Herkelman Field was canceled Friday night due to weather.

The production is the result of work that began in November with teammates and on his own. Davis is reaping the reward of his effort, hitting for the cycle (single, double, triple and home run in the same game) with seven RBIs against Cedar Rapids Prairie on opening day.

He sits tied for ninth in 4A with 49 hits and tied for fourth in all classes with 100 total bases. He noticed things have clicked in the weeks that lead into the postseason.

“Lately, I’ve felt that,” said Davis, who is batting .462 with a .555 on-base percentage. “It was up and down there for a while. The last two weeks I’ve really felt myself improve.”

Davis made adjustments, eliminating a leg kick and keeping his hands back when teams continued to jam him at the plate. Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer noticed more consistency hitting the ball and more pop that have led to strides.

“Frequency of hard contacts,” Hoyer said. “Also, his exit (velocity) has made a pretty significant jump.”

Davis tied for the team lead with 27 hits and notched a team-high with 24 RBIs and three home runs last season. Hoyer recalled Davis playing on the sophomore team as a freshman, but moved him up to varsity very early the following season.

“He started last year with the sophomore team because we had so many seniors,” Hoyer said. “I think it was one doubleheader in and our sophomore coach said you’ve got to bring him (to varsity). We had him with us in practice and ‘Yep, we’ve got to bring him.’ His first start was pretty dang good against a good (Iowa City) Liberty team.”

Not bad for someone who couldn’t budge his way on a Cougars roster his first season of eligibility. He kept working hard and has become a major contributor to the Kennedy program.

“Actually, I didn’t make the freshman team in eighth grade,” Davis said. “I have always been the type of kid to keep my head down and not really focus on stuff like that.”

Kennedy is the fourth seed in 4A Substate 4. The Cougars open with No. 3-seed Muscatine. Liberty is the second seed and top-seeded Pleasant Valley is ranked No. 2 by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Davis and the Cougars hope to make some more noise with their bats.

“I think our hitting is starting to come around now,” Davis said. “That is dangerous. Kennedy is known for its defense and that comes pretty natural for us. Now, the offense is starting to come around. I think the postseason should be pretty good for us.”