Kennedy, IC West split their baseball twinbill

CEDAR RAPIDS - Call it the great pinch hit that shouldn't have been. Well, maybe.

Whether you think Ryan Raaf struck out in the sixth inning of last night's prep baseball doubleheader opener at Cedar Rapids Kennedy is up to you. The Iowa City West senior swung at a two-strike pitch that sounded as if it hit something before squirting away from Kennedy catcher Sam Hunter.

Was it Raff's bat, then Hunter's gear? If so, that's a foul ball. That's what the home plate umpire ruled.

But Raaf said he never made contact with the pitch. Instead it hit him, then Hunter's gear. That's a swinging strike three.

“It hit off me,” Raaf said. “It was a curveball, I went around, I went through on it, and it hit my back leg.”

Maybe unsure of the rules, Raaf said he thought the ump made the right call. He did, as far as West was concerned.

The foul ball was followed by at least a handful of other pitches before Raaf came through with a clutch line-drive, two-run single that gave his Class 4A fourth-ranked Trojans a 4-3 win.

No. 6 Kennedy (13-6, 7-3), came back to get the nightcap, 7-2.

“You know, Ryan's had a heck of a year for us,” West Coach Charlie Stumpff said. “We've kind of had four guys rotating in ... He's had a lot of good at-bats. That was a huge spot.''

Stumpff was quite the soothsayer, deciding to hit for Neil Flynn and his .500 batting average in a two-out, runners-on-second-and-third situation. Not that Raaf is a slouch, coming into the game at .371.

West (15-4, 8-4) scored the first earned runs this season against Kennedy ace lefty Austin Christensen.

“The longer the at-bat went on there, the more comfortable I got,” Raaf said. “I just found my pitch and let it rip.”

Here's video of Game 1's final out: reliever Connor Schreck retiring B.J. Cunningham on a fly to left: