5 Gazette area Iowa high school baseball games to watch in Week 3, including Mississippi Valley Conference clashes

Memorial Day has a few games, but most of the high school baseball highlights come later in the week. Defending Class 3A champion Western Dubuque has a key stretch, playing at Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Iowa City High. Solon and Cedar Rapids Xavier have a 3A showdown, while other Mississippi Valley Conference and Wamac teams battle. Here are five notable games this week.

Tuesday: Western Dubuque at Cedar Rapids Kennedy

The Cougars are ranked fifth in the preseason 4A rankings and open the week Monday at home against Marshalltown. Western Dubuque has won two straight 3A state titles and held the top spot in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association preseason poll. The Cougars are 10-0, while the Bobcats are 4-1.

Both teams have potent offenses. Kennedy averages 12.1 runs a game. Western Dubuque scores at 10.2 runs per clip. Kennedy has seen a power surge to begin the season, hitting a state-best 20 home runs through the first two weeks. Dallas Center-Grimes is a distant second with seven. Grant Mather leads all classes with seven home runs and Nolan Grawe is tied for second with five. The Cougars have 93 total hits and almost half are the extra-base variety, tallying 22 doubles and four triples to go along with the heap of homers.

Western Dubuque counters with a staff earned-run average of just 2.19 and a 1.09 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched). Sophomore Brett Harris has two wins and Tanner Anderson 10 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings to lead the Bobcats.

Western Dubuque owns a 5-4 edge in the series since 2016. The Bobcats won, 16-5, last season, snapping a three-game losing streak to the Cougars.

Tuesday: Solon at Cedar Rapids Xavier

This is a key game in the area 3A landscape. Both received votes in the preseason poll and a win will help their resume, especially when postseason pairings are released about a month from now. These two teams are going in different directions. The Spartans are 5-1 and have won four straight games, sweeping Independence between a 2-0 win over 2A No. 7 Cascade and a 5-4 victory over Washington (Iowa). The Saints own a 3-4 mark, dropping their last three games. Xavier was swept by Cedar Falls on Friday and dropped an 11-10 barnburner with 3A No. 6 Marion. The Saints have had the best of this rivalry, winning six straight that spans the last decade.

Xavier scores 8.6 runs per game, while the Spartans put up 6.7. Solon has a much better team ERA, coming in almost two runs better at 2.39. Vince Steinbrech leads Solon with 12 strikeouts in eight innings. He also has a 0.88 ERA. Teammate Jackson Link has two wins and a 1.75 ERA. The Spartans’ Brett White is batting .500 with 10 RBIs, 10 runs, five doubles and two home runs. Preston Lang powers the Saints offense, hitting .440 with 11 hits including two doubles and a triple. Lang leads the team with eight RBIs. Xavier’s Andrew Hamlett has one win and 16 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched.

Thursday: Williamsburg at Benton Community

The Bobcats swept a thrilling and heated doubleheader last season at Williamsburg. They won the opener, 4-2, and then outlasted the Raiders, 7-6, in the nightcap. The Raiders had won the previous five meetings and eight of the last nine.

The Raiders are 3-2 after losing a lot from last year’s state tournament team and are on a three-game winning streak, sweeping Vinton-Shellsburg (5-4, 5-3). Cael Moore leads Williamsburg on offense, batting .500 with four RBIs. Nile Sinn also has five hits with three doubles and a .455 batting average for the Raiders. Sinn also has 14 strikeouts 10 1/3 innings and a 2.03 ERA.

Benton returned a lot of experience from last season. Wyatt Rinderknecht leads an offense that averages 7.9 runs a game and has 19 extra-base hits, despite three straight losses. Rinderknecht has 11 hits and six RBIs. Teammate Ryan Finn is on his heels with 10 hits and has driven in a team-high eight RBIs. Finn also leads the Bobcats in strikeouts, fanning 15 in just 6 1/3 innings pitched.

Friday: Western Dubuque at Iowa City High

The Bobcats’ tough schedule closes the week at Mercer Park against 4A No. 3 City High. These two teams have had some battles in the past. The last time they played the lights went out at Mercer Park, forcing them to conclude on an adjacent diamond. So, expect something wild. The teams have split with each other the last two seasons.

Western Dubuque’s pitching will be tested earlier in the week and its bats will face solid pitching at the end. City High owns a 1.42 ERA and has struck out 77 batters in 69 innings. The Little Hawks do not average one runner per inning. Talon Young has two wins, Drake Obermueller hasn’t allowed an earned run and Jaxton Schroeder has struck out 18 in less than 11 innings with a 1.75 ERA for City High. Jake Mitchell leads the Little Hawks with 13 hits. Mitchell is batting .433 with six RBIs, four doubles and nine runs. Dominic Salibi has driven in nine for City High.

Jake Goodman has paced the Bobcats offense. He has nine hits with a .474 batting average. Anderson has seven hits, while Brett Harris (.353 average and .500 on-base percentage) and Colin McDermott have six hits apiece. Western Dubuque is batting .333 with a .500 OBP as a team. The MVC Valley won’t be decided but a frontrunner should be clear after this week.

Friday: Cedar Falls at Cedar Rapids Prairie

This is an important doubleheader in the MVC Mississippi. Prairie was eighth and Cedar Falls was ninth in the IHSBCA preseason rankings. Both teams are 5-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference. Both have split with Linn-Mar and have a loss to City High. Prairie is coming off a sweep of Dubuque Wahlert and Cedar Falls recently swept Xavier. These games will establish a divisional leader. Cedar Falls has won the last three meetings, including a doubleheader sweep last season.

Prairie is a young team with a veteran pitching staff. The Hawks arms are capable of keeping them close against any foe. Seniors Reid Burkle, Kam Volz and Logan Wagemester and junior Jordan Woodhouse have contributed to the team’s 2.75 ERA. Pitching and defense will be crucial against the Tigers, who hit .309 as a team.

Cedar Falls’ pitching is strong as well, posting a 2.09 ERA. Kamren Francois has seven hits and Tait Tierney has seven RBIs to lead Prairie. Maddox Strassburg has 10 hits and Logan Wroe has 10 RBIs to lead the Tigers.

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com