Yee haw! Western Dubuque baseball team goes back to back in Class 3A state tournament

IOWA CITY — Giddy up, partner. Gee willikers.

These gosh darn Bobcat varmints have gone and taken the whole kit and caboodle again. Wearin’ these high-falutin’ hats along the way.

Western Dubuque’s baseball team decided at the beginning of the postseason to do a little team bonding. Instead of bleaching their collective hair or something like that, it was suggested players wear cowboy hats before and after games.

These Stetsons, or knockoffs of them, were all over Banks Field this week. Though it was Iowa High School Athletic Association-provided championship caps the boys were wearing after a 6-2 win Friday night over North Polk gave Western Dubuque its second consecutive Class 3A state title.

Yee haw!

“Caleb Klein, our center fielder, brought up at the start of districts how we all should wear cowboy hats to keep us loose, keep our mind off things,” said Western Dubuque shortstop Colton McIlrath. “Know the game is just a game.”

“We got new hats now,” Klein said. “We’ll wear the cowboy hats back at home probably.”

Or on the bus ride home maybe?

“Maybe we’ll wear both. We’re not sure, yet,” Klein said. “We’re thinking about wearing them both. But we’ve got brand new hats right now. All of the seniors and captains decided to go into substate making it loose and fun. That’ll carry over in through the postseason as we go on. And it did.”

Fun and loose and championship worthy. Western Dubuque went back to back with a good starting pitching performance (again) from Isaac Then and an offense that was patient and opportunistic.

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The Bobcats (36-9) scored four runs in the bottom of the second inning to knock out hard-throwing North Polk ace Reece Wrage. They did so with just one hit, a Jake Goodman RBI single up the middle.

Everything else was a walk (three) or hit by pitch. Wrage came in with a 10-0 record and 0.76 earned run average, but Western Dubuque worked him for 68 pitches in two innings.

A couple more Bobcats runs in the fourth pretty much put things away. The aforementioned Klein had an RBI triple and scored on a Then single.

“These kids just grind it out,” said WD Coach Casey Bryant. “They are lunchpail kids, that’s what our community is about. We don’t have any superstars.”

Speaking of Then, the senior southpaw picked up the mound win for the second year in a row, throwing well again in the biggest game of the season. He lasted 5 2/3 innings before hitting his 110-pitch limit, allowing six hits and one earned run.

Then didn’t walk anyone and struck out five.

“It’s kind of crazy to think about,” Then said of his back-to-back championship-game wins. “I couldn’t have done it without my team. It’s nice to be able to play a big part in those games.”

“Isaac’s just a battler,” Bryant said. “How many kids have won two substate finals and two state championship games in state history? ... You’ve got to be really good to do that. The bigger the moment, the better he is. That’s the way he’s always been.”

North Polk (29-6) scored a run in the third inning, when ninth-place hitter Reggie Postel sliced a triple just fair inside the right-field line for a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly. Postel had two hits for the second-ranked Comets in the game, Charlie Bunkers three.

The Comets picked up an unearned run in the sixth, with WD reliever Ryan Klostermann getting a flyout with two on to end that North Polk threat, then pitching the seventh for the save.

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Western Dubuque was the field’s top seed, of course, using a regular season packed with games against Class 4A opponents as a member of the Mississippi Valley Conference to prepare for the postseason. And excel again in the postseason.

All the while styling, smiling and profiling in their cowboy hats.

“Number one all season was very enjoyable,” Klein said. “Back to back is hard to do. We did it, established that we are probably the greatest team in Bobcat history.”

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