116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Sioux City Heelan might be team of destiny in 3A state baseball tournament
Crusaders score 3 go-ahead runs in the top of the 7th inning to beat Dubuque Wahlert, 6-3, in their latest display of late-game heroics
Jul. 24, 2024 8:07 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — Labeling someone a ‘Team of Destiny’ seems like a tired, worn-out sports cliche.
But if you insist on using it, Sioux City Heelan’s baseball team is probably it.
The fourth-ranked Crusaders won both their substate semifinal and final games in walk-off fashion. Wednesday night they scored three go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh inning to beat top-ranked Dubuque Wahlert, 6-3, in a Class 3A state tournament semifinal at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“We’ve talked a little bit about it,” said Heelan Coach Andy Osborne. “There’s this thing I do. I love baseball history, so I’ll go back and look through teams. That’s exactly the phrase I use: a team of destiny. Today I talked about the 2014 Royals. They got to the World Series but lost. But the message was they had to win the wildcard game that year against the A’s, they got down but kept coming back and walked them off in extras.
“For the kids, it has kind of become a running joke. They’ll guess which team I am going to talk about, because we’ve done it all summer.”
This was a pretty straightforward pitchers’ duel most of the way that got whacky at the end. Wahlert (34-10) scored a run without a hit in the bottom of the first inning, with Heelan (34-10) countering with a two-spot in the third and another run in the fifth.
Then the bottom of the sixth happened. Wahlert had nothing going offensively but took advantage of sudden wildness (a hit batter, two walks and a wild pitch) from Heelan pitcher Kaleb LaFavor to form a rally.
“In the fifth, I was giving my coach a high five and jammed my finger,” LaFavor said. “It swelled up pretty quickly, and I just couldn’t find it.”
A Bode Nagelmaker two-out RBI single made it a 3-2 game, with the aforementioned wild pitch moving runners ahead to second and third. Courtesy runner Gavin Ready at second base then started running toward the occupied third, stopping two-thirds of the way there and retreating, drawing a catcher’s throw.
The runner at third (Foti Rigopoulos) then bolted for the plate, sliding home safely when the return throw from second was up the line and late. Crazy.
“We weren’t hitting, so you’ve got to try it,” said Wahlert Coach Kory Tuescher.
Sean Schaefer led off the Heelan seventh with a single to right and was wild pitched to second. After a one-out walk, a back-pick attempt at first by Wahlert’s catcher went awry when his throw was high and down the right-field line, scoring Schaefer and moving a runner from first to third.
A run-scoring single by No. 9 hitter Hunter Wauhob made it 5-3. He also had an RBI double in the third.
A groundout plated another run. Wahlert had its first two hitters reach in the bottom of the seventh, but that was it.
The Golden Eagles lost to Western Dubuque in last year’s 3A semifinals. It lost the 2021 championship game to Marion on a walk-off.
“The fact that we’re getting these opportunities, that’s where this program is and we’re keeping it,” Teuscher said. “That monkey is sitting over in the corner of the room ... We have felt multiple times in the last five to seven years that we have had a team to win a state championship. For a variety of reasons, some in our control and some not in our control, it hasn’t happened, yet.
“But this program is where we want it to be. We’ll keep working.”
This is the 20th state tournament appearance for Heelan, which seeks its first championship since 2004.
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters