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Marion dominates Center Point-Urbana after state baseball tournament rain delay
Wolves score 11 unanswered runs against the Stormin’ Pointers after a 3-hour delay in their Class 3A state baseball tournament quarterfinal Monday afternoon to post a 12-2, 5-inning victory
Jul. 22, 2024 9:14 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — It rained Monday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Not on the northeast side of town, just at Veterans Memorial Stadium it seemed.
This was an isolated and stationary weather cell, so it kept raining. And raining. And raining.
Which meant Marion and Center Point-Urbana waited. And waited. And waited.
It was a good three-plus hours before the teams could pick things back up after they had played just a single inning of their state baseball tournament game. It took that long for the Cedar Rapids Kernels grounds crew to do their usual phenomenal job getting the field ready after almost two inches of moisture fell.
But the delay certainly didn’t affect one of the teams. That’d be the Wolves, who dominated all of the post-rain play, scoring 11 unanswered runs for a 12-2 win in this Class 3A quarterfinal.
The game ended via mercy rule on Austin Goodrich’s two-run single in the fifth inning.
“Sometimes those rain delays will either help you or hurt you,” said Marion Coach Steve Fish. “I think it helped us today.”
Second-ranked Marion (32-5) plays third-ranked North Polk (27-6) in a Wednesday night semifinal at 7:30. Center Point-Urbana, which qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 2006, ends a terrific season with a 29-9 record.
These teams played a pair of 3-2 games in the regular season, Marion winning both, one in eight innings. Thus you expected this one to be equally tight.
Center Point-Urbana scored twice in the top of the first, on an error and a Tommy Taylor RBI single. Marion countered with a run, though CPU starting pitcher Bryer Wiley pitched out of a bases-loaded, none-out situation to limit damage.
The Wolves tied things immediately in the bottom of the second, went ahead for good with a three-run fourth and put the game away via a seven-run fifth.
“Staying locked in was the biggest thing,” said Marion’s Trey Franck. “We’ve been in this situation a number of times. This is my fourth (tournament) in five years. Everyone just stay calm. Last year, we lost to a team (Carlisle) we probably should have beaten. This year, we weren’t going to let that happen again. We told our guys to settle down, settle in and good things will happen. Just play our game, and we’ll come out victorious. That’s what happened.”
Franck had a bases-loaded triple in the fifth to break things open. Grayson Kirsch’s two-run triple was the big hit in the Marion fourth.
“I could definitely feel the shift in energy (after the rain),” said Center Point-Urbana Coach Tyler Smith. “We came out, and it basically felt like we were starting a new game. But they had to do the same thing, so no excuses on our end.”
The teams hung out in their respective locker rooms for three hours, had a bite to eat, were able to take some swings in the batting cages at The Annex adjacent to the stadium.
“It was different,” said Wiley. “You go from throwing up all that energy to play one inning and then taking three hours. It essentially was a whole other game. It definitely felt like a different game. You’re going back to your warmup progression. I think we stayed true to what we had, but, at the end of the day, they just plays that beat us. What can you do?”
Wiley threw 32 pitches in the first inning but gutted it out and came back to continue to pitch the next three innings. Marion, meanwhile, replaced starting pitcher Payton Hodges with Cole Goodrich, and the sophomore was terrific.
He allowed just a couple of scratch singles in his four innings of work, didn’t walk anyone and struck out four to get the win. Fish told him he was the next man up on the mound about an hour after the delay began.
“When I heard the news, I just had to lock in, you know what I mean?” Goodrich said. “I wasn’t nervous at all, that was all behind me ... Just go out there, do your job. I have a great defense behind me. I had all the confidence in the world.”
This is the fifth state tournament appearance for Marion, which won the 2021 3A championship. It will continue.
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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