Pitching, defense dominate as Iowa City High, Dubuque Wahlert split low-scoring DH

IOWA CITY - The Iowa City High baseball team pitched exactly to its very low season earned run average Friday night in a big Mississippi Valley Conference double-header against Dubuque Wahlert at Mercer Park.

Yet it only came out with a split of this splendidly played twin bill between ranked clubs. Wahlert won the opener, 2-0, with City High rebounding for a 3-1 win in the nightcap.

City High is ranked No. 5 in Class 4A, Wahlert No. 1 in 3A.

“If you look at that first game, they executed better than we did,” said City High Coach Brian Mitchell. “Then we executed better in the second game than they did. You’ve got two good teams, two even teams, two clean teams, as both teams play really good defense.”

Will Pierro outdueled Jaxton Schroeder in the opener, the right-hander throwing a complete-game three-hitter. Wahlert scored the game’s first run in the sixth inning, when City High’s catcher couldn’t hang on to the baseball as he went to tag a runner who looked easily out at the plate as he was trying to score from third base on an infield grounder.

A leadoff double by Brandon Cummer and two-out RBI single to right by Graham Ahlers provided a big insurance run.

Wahlert (10-3) scored a run right away in the first inning of Game 2, but City High (10-3) countered right back with two runs in the bottom of the frame. A single up the middle from Dominic Salibi scored Drake Obermueller from second base, and Salibi came all the way around from second on Schroeder’s bunt single.

That was enough for City High pitchers Zach Meredith and Adam Bowman. Meredith went the first three innings, with junior righty Bowman facing the mininum in his four relief innings and striking out eight for the win.

“I just went out there, Zach did a really good job of showing me where their weaknesses were, just where the zone was,” said Bowman, who struck out the first six hitters he faced with a mean combination of an upper-80s fastball and diving curveball. “Just how to pitch to their guys and where the umpire’s zone was. Saw them hit the game before, too, so that helped.”

Losing pitcher Foti Rigopoulos doubled with one out in the Wahlert sixth and went to third on a Bowman wild pitch. But City High shortstop Owen Hicks made a great lunging stab of a line drive off the bat of Wahlert’s Bode Nagelmaker with the infield playing in, tossing to third to double up Rigopoulos.

“We’ve got a good team,” Mitchell said. “Our kids work hard, they come every day. Sometimes you win these types of games. More times than not, we do, but we didn’t get that first one.”

City High has a team ERA of 1.05, by the way. It has a deep pitching staff with guys like Schroeder, Bowman, Zach Meredith, Nick Meredit and Drake Obermueller among others.

“We’ve got pitching and defense,” Mitchell said. “We’re always going to be in games.”

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