Dowling leads from start to finish against Cedar Rapids Prairie in 4A state baseball quarterfinals

IOWA CITY — Not this year.

No comeback. No incredible late rally.

Just the end of the season.

West Des Moines Dowling scored two runs each in three separate innings and led from start to finish in an 8-2 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie in a Class 4A state baseball tournament quarterfinal Tuesday night at Banks Field.

It was a year ago when Prairie shocked everyone with a six-run seventh inning to beat Dowling in a state tourney quarterfinal, 8-4. Definitely not the case again here.

The seventh-ranked Maroons (26-14) simply were the crisper team, playing flawless defense and getting a masterful relief pitching job from submariner Evan Curran to advance to Thursday’s semifinals against either Iowa City High or Indianola.

Third-ranked Prairie is done at 31-9.

“They beat us last year in the quarterfinals, and the guys wanted to avenge that,” said Dowling Coach Mark Roering. “They were pretty motivated.”

» State baseball photos: Cedar Rapids Prairie vs. West Des Moines Dowling

Dowling scored two runs each in the first and second innings to jump out to a 4-2 lead. Two more runs in the fourth extended the advantage, with solo home runs from Cooper Nicholson in the fifth and Beau Gamble in the seventh providing the final margin.

The Maroons never let Prairie starting pitcher Maddux Frese breathe, initiating pressure on him from virtually the start. A missed popup to shortstop led to an unearned Dowling run in the first inning, with a two-base fielding error at third leading to the Maroons’ runs in the fourth.

“Obviously they came out all guns ablazing,” said Prairie’s Noah Day. “We didn’t play our best baseball. We were hoping to get a better game than we did. But we got a good group of guys.”

“We knew they were going to be able to hit the ball around pretty well,” said Prairie catcher Brandon Vlcko. “Just going into it, we knew we had to throw a lot of strikes and play good defense. I thought we threw a lot of strikes, but balls just didn’t fall our way. We didn’t get our bats going enough all around.”

That was in large part because of Curran. He came in for starting pitcher Drew Mauro with two outs in the Prairie second and went the rest of the way. The right-hander gives hitters a very unique look with his sidearm ways reminiscent of longtime major leaguer Darren O’Day, who currently pitches for the Atlanta Braves.

Only three guys reached base against him in 5 1/3 innings: a walk to the first batter he faced (Frese) and singles from Landon Ruby and Cal Sullivan. He threw just 60 pitches.

“Starting with a lefty that’s pretty over the top (in his delivery), the mixing up with that is pretty tough,” Vlcko said. “We knew that we’d face that kid at some point in the game. It’s hard to practice against that stuff, there’s more run on the ball. He just did a good job.”

This was the second straight Metro team Dowling vanquished in the postseason, following a 9-2 substate final victory over Linn-Mar.

Prairie should be good again next season, as it returns six of the nine players who batted Tuesday night. This has become one of the top 4A programs in Eastern Iowa, one that has been in either a state tournament or a substate final seven consecutive years.

“Hopefully that can keep snowballing, and I think it can,” Nelson said. “The talent’s always going to be there, it’s just that expectation, that we expect to be in this position every year. And we do, and our guys should. We hope that we can continue that, kind of being an Eastern Iowa powerful team that has a chance to do this on a yearly basis.”

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