5 Gazette area Iowa high school baseball games to watch for Week 4 of 2023 season

Tuesday highlights a big week. Cedar Rapids Prairie is off to one of their best starts and will face their toughest challenge, yet. Cascade and North Linn face-off on a neutral field, while South Winneshiek takes on the new No. 1 in Class 1A. Fight with Flash Foundation’s Crosstown Classic is Saturday. Here are five notable games this week:

TUESDAY – C.R. PRAIRIE AT PLEASANT VALLEY

Prairie opens the week with a 14-0 record. The 4A No. 2 Hawks travel to the No. 7 Spartans (11-5). Pleasant Valley swept a doubleheader at Prairie last season. This doubleheader is the start of a tough stretch that leads into conference games with 3A No. 4 Cedar Rapids Xavier Friday and 4A No. 4 Cedar Rapids Kennedy next Monday. Prairie owns an advantage offensively and defensively. The Hawks score 8.5 runs a game compared to the Spartans 7.9. Pitching statistics are further apart. Prairie gives up just 1.6 runs a contest with Pleasant Valley coming in at 5.0. Kade Knock is a prototypical leadoff hitter, leading the Hawks with 29 runs, 27 hits, .562 batting average and .644 on-base percentage. Prairie’s Maddux Frese has 21 hits with a team-high 17 RBIs and is 3-0 on the mound with a 0.39 earned-run average and 31 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched.

TUESDAY – NORTH LINN VS. CASCADE AT MOUNT MERCY

Two programs led by coaches who own a mutual respect. North Linn’s Travis Griffith and Cascade’s Roamn Hummel run perennial powers and like to test their players against top competition. Interestingly, the two teams will come to Cedar Rapids to play at Mount Mercy’s Plaster Athletic Complex. The Lynx start the week 8-1 and ranked sixth in 1A. The Cougars are seventh in 2A with an 8-2 mark. The big matchup is Cascade’s offense against North Linn’s pitching. The Cougars rank second in 2A with .342 team batting average and five home runs. Jack Menster leads Cascade with a .406 batting average and Will Hosch has a team-high 14 RBIs. North Linn pitchers have held opponents to a .140 batting average with 77 strikeouts in 58 2/3 innings. The Lynx have a 1.79 ERA and 1.18 WHIP.

TUESDAY – MASON CITY NEWMAN AT SOUTH WINNESHIEK

South Winneshiek graduated eight seniors from last year’s squad, including five all-Upper Iowa Conference and all-district performers. The Warriors have just reloaded. They have posted an 8-0 record and moved up to No. 8 in the latest IHSBCA rankings. South Winneshiek is coming off an impressive win over Iowa City Regina, following with a victory over MFL MarMac. Carson Wenthold (12), Jamie Kuennen (11) and Keagen Streeter (10) lead the Warriors in hits. Kuennen has seven extra-base hits, leading South Winn with 22 total bases and his eight RBIs is tied for the team high. Braiden Todd and Streeter are both 2-0 and have combined for 37 strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings. Mason City Newman (13-1) supplanted Remsen St. Mary’s as the top-ranked team in 1A. The Knights score 11.7 runs per game with a scoring differential of 8.1, which ranks sixth in 1A. Andrew Fitzsimmons leads Newman with 21 hits. He is batting at a .447 clip and owns a .544 on-base percentage.

FRIDAY – IOWA CITY LIBERTY AT C.R. JEFFERSON

Both teams start the week with 6-7 overall records. Each has a win over a ranked opponent. The J-Hawks beat 4A No. 4 Kennedy early in the season. The Lightning defeated 3A No. 4 Xavier on May 26. The production between the two are similar. Liberty scores 5.1 on average, while the J-Hawks are at 5.4. The Lightning allows 6.6 runs a contest with Jefferson at 6.5. Liberty is in their first season under Coach Uby Martinez. Owen Norris has 10 hits and Cooper Hughes has eight RBIs to lead the Lightning. Zac Henderson has 14 hits and Abram Johnson has 10 RBIs to pace the J-Hawks.

SATURDAY – FIGHT WITH FLASH CROSSTOWN CLASSIC AT SOLON

The annual fundraising event is centered around high school baseball games with all four Iowa City programs, Clear Creek Amana and Solon and will be held Saturday at the Solon Recreation and Nature Area. Competition begins at 11 a.m. with Solon and City High. West and Regina will play at 1:30 p.m. Rivals CCA and Liberty are slated for 4 p.m.

The Fight with Flash Foundation was created in honor of Austin “Flash” Schroeder, a 15-year-old who was involved in West’s youth baseball program before he died in 2015 after a yearlong battle with T-cell lymphoma. The organization has raised more than $700,000 to University of Iowa’s Children’s Hospital’s Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program through various events, including the Crosstown Classic.