Iowa City Liberty knocks off No. 2 Prairie to return to state baseball tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — Playing with confidence, even when trailing, isn’t a new concept to the Iowa City Liberty baseball team.

Neither is playing the role of underdog.

The Lightning (23-17) upset No. 2-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie (33-7), 6-2, Wednesday night in a Class 4A substate final at Prairie.

With the win, Liberty heads to the state baseball tournament at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City for the second consecutive season. The Lightning will face No. 3 Johnston in a quarterfinal game at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“I’m just really proud of our guys,” Liberty coach Uby Martinez said. “We talk about resiliency. We took our lumps early in the year, trying to find out who we were and what our roles were. We just found the right time to get it done.”

The Hawks took both games of a doubleheader when the teams met on June 5. That didn’t faze the Lightning Wednesday.

“We were ready for this,” Liberty centerfielder Luke Ramsey said. “We got swept by them earlier in the season, but it’s hard to beat a team three times. We were ready from the beginning. It feels great to win it.”

The Lightning trailed 2-0 going into the top of the fifth inning.

An uncharacteristic Prairie error followed by a Braden O’Connor walk put two runners on for pinch hitter Jackson Khamphilanouvong.

He delivered.

Khamphilanouvong drove a ball to deep left field for an RBI double, tying the score.

“My approach there was to hit it hard somewhere,” Khamphilanouvong said. “It really got our team going. It got me going, too.”

“He usually hits velocity really well,” Martinez said. “He’s had really good rounds at batting practice all week. We felt really good with him going up there in that situation.”

Khamphilanouvong’s two-RBI double sparked more offense in the fifth.

Ryan Schmierer roped an RBI double of his own two batters later. Ramsey followed with an RBI single to give Liberty a 4-2 lead.

“We’ve been down before and in this situation,” Ramsey said. “Coming from behind is nothing new for us. We just had to stay locked in. Once hits started coming, everyone just started getting confidence off each other.”

The pitching held strong for Liberty as the left-handed trio of Mason Waterbury, Jackson Tubbs and Owen Norris combined to allow Prairie just two runs on eight hits over seven innings.

“All three of them are different,” Martinez said. “All three have different arm slots, different pitches for strikes and their velocities are different. Even though they’re all three lefties, they pose three different levels of difficulty for hitters.”

The Lightning added two insurance runs in the seventh as Ramsey slugged an RBI triple, followed by a single from Cooper Hughes.

“We’ve worked so hard for this moment and we’re not done yet,” Ramsey said. “Three more games is all we’ve got to win, so we’re looking forward to it.”

“(Last year) It was kind of the same thing, we came into the (state) tournament as an underdog,” Martinez said. “I think we’ll be better prepared. It’s a big stage, right in our backyard. And now we’ve got some guys who’ve played in that tournament. So, they’re going to help us experience-wise.”