Johnston’s hopes of a Class 4A state baseball 3-peat remain alive after walk-off win over Waukee Northwest

CEDAR RAPIDS — These champs are still champing. Chomping? Championing?

However you want to label it, the Johnston baseball team’s attempt at a Class 4A state championship three-peat remains alive after some late heroics lifted the fourth-ranked Dragons past No. 8 Waukee Northwest, 4-3, in a Tuesday afternoon/evening state tournament quarterfinal at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Mason Tell’s walk-off two-run double to left field in the bottom of the seventh inning allowed the Dragons to survive. Again.

Johnston (34-5) had to go 13 innings to beat Cedar Falls last week in a 4A substate final. Now this.

It’s the Dragons and top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy in a Thursday afternoon semifinal at 5.

“We face adversity every single day,” said Johnston’s Will Nuss. “I feel like we’ve learned to deal with it. Especially the past few games. That thriller against Cedar Falls, and now this one. So I feel like we’re learning every single day, no matter who we play or what the situation is.”

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Johnston beat Northwest (26-16) three times in the regular season, but none of those games had these dramatics.

Tanner Jackson lofted a two-run home run over the tall well in left field in the top of the first inning to put the Wolves on top. A Nuss RBI triple in the third brought Johnston within a run.

Then the rains hit, about as hard as they did Monday, causing a two-hour delay and knocking both starting pitchers out of the game. A Northwest error brought home the tying run for Johnston in the fifth, but the Wolves took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh when Gus Ruggle led off with an infield single, went to third on a one-out Cayden Kitzman double and scored on Jonah Sweeney’s perfect squeeze bunt placed between home plate and the pitcher’s mound.

Nuss, however, led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield single of his own, going to third on Sam Kemmer’s one-out double to left. Sounds pretty familiar, right?

But instead of a squeeze play, Tell swung away and drove a 1-0 pitcher over the left fielder’s head to win it.

“Right when I hit it, I saw it go over his head, and I was, like, in shock,” Tell said. “I don’t know if I remember it. Just a really fun time.”

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Photos: Johnston vs. Waukee Northwest in Class 4A state baseball quarterfinals

Because of the rain, the 4A quarterfinal between Iowa City High and Waukee originally scheduled for 7:30 Tuesday night was pushed back to a 2 p.m. first pitch Wednesday.

Trever Baumler leads Dowling over DCG

Senior pitcher Trever Baumler was cruising in his West Des Moines Dowling team’s 4A quarterfinal Tuesday night against Dallas Center-Grimes.

Which made the decision to remove him from the game with two outs and none on in the bottom of the sixth inning of a 3-0 Maroons lead a bit peculiar.

Until you really thought about it. The TCU signee threw just 61 pitches, meaning he theoretically would be good to throw again Friday night if Dowling makes the 4A championship game. Iowa High School Athletic Association pitch-count guidelines say he could have thrown up to 65 pitches and still have just a two-day rest before he could go again.

“Staying efficient is huge,” Baumler said after Dowling finished off second-ranked DCG, 3-1. “Staying under 65 pitches was huge. Look, if we win this next ballgame, we’ve got a shot at winning this thing. It’s huge for us, and it’s definitely a momentum game. I love it. Let’s go.”

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Baumler regularly hit 92 miles per hour with his fastball. At the plate, he walked twice and had an RBI single for the Maroons (24-15), who scored their other two runs on bases-loaded walks.

Southeastern Community College-bound Keaton Fenn also showed 91-mile-per-hour heat but took the loss, as Dowling was patient at the plate and made him throw over 100 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.

It’s Dowling and the City High-Waukee winner in Thursday night’s 7:30 p.m. semifinals.

“Honestly the plan of attack every time for me is to go out there and throw strikes, get weak contact and keep the pitch limit low,” said Baumler, who has been taking classes already at TCU and making his way back to Iowa for these big postseason games. “You know, I’ve got a lot of trust in my guys out on the field that they are going to field everything and get outs for me.”

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com