For C.R. Prairie baseball team, it’s pitching and winning

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids Prairie’s baseball team gave up four runs in the second game of its double-header Friday night.

Perish the thought!

Hawks junior pitcher Logan Wagemester gave up a run (actually two runs) in the first game of his team’s double-header Friday night.

Perish the thought again!

Class 4A’s No. 2 team in this week’s Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association’s poll still rolled to a 12-2, 7-4 double-header sweep of 3A fourth-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier on the far southwest side. The first game ended by mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth inning.

But those initial two things listed in this story were surprising. Or at least firsts.

Prairie (19-1) hadn’t allowed more than three runs in any of its first 19 games, which is quite an achievement. Wagemester had not allowed an earned run in his first four starts this season.

Quite another achievement.

“Yeah, the first two of the year,” he grinned. “I thought we played really good. Thought we played very aggressively on the field. We had a lot of big hops going over to the left side, and we made some plays over there. The second game, we just stayed aggressive.”

Wagemester did improve his individual record to 5-0. Jordan Woodhouse got promoted from the Prairie sophomore team and got the win in Game 2 with five innings of effective ball, giving up just two runs.

Prairie went into this twin-bill with a team earned run average of 1.44. That will win you some ballgames.

In the Hawks’ case, a lot of ballgames.

“We talk a lot about pitching to contact because our defense is so good,” Prairie Coach James Nelson said. “With guys like (senior) Maddux Frese, obviously he’s on the mound for us sometimes, but when he’s at shortstop, we just have great defenders all over the place. If you can get high school kids to not walk people, not give up those extra bases, we preach that a lot.

“You see some of the guys who are out there pitching for us, they’re not throwing 100 miles per hour. They’re not throwing the nastiest pitches, but they do a good job of attacking the zone and going right after hitters.”

Frese, by the way, is 4-0 with a 0.86 ERA in his first four starts. Reid Burkle (3-0, 1.75) and Kam Volz (2-1, 1.40) give Prairie more reliable starting pitchers.

“Us as pitchers, we trust our fielders to make plays,” Wagemester said. “We’re not afraid to attack a batter in a situation. We don’t have to worry as much about runs being scored.”

Prairie scored seven runs in the first three innings of the opener to roll. Frese had a three-run double to left in the third. Cal Sullivan and Michael Ray had RBI hits in the first inning of Game 2 to get the Hawks flying early.

Prairie lost for the first time midweek to seventh-ranked Pleasant Valley, splitting a double-header. The response to that loss looked pretty solid here.

“Our guys have done a good job of being locked into game to game to game,” Nelson said. “We really hadn’t talked about not losing. These guys do a pretty good job of that. It’s the old adage, but if you just play them one at a time, our guys do a pretty good job of that.”

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