Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks

Iowa City West junior left-hander Kyle Cherry is unassuming off the field. When he took the mound Friday night, he took command of the game stifling Cedar Rapids Prairie in a 3-0 victory for the Trojans.

A Cedar Rapids Prairie 1-2-3 trifecta in the Fifth Season 5K, led by Samuel Lange, certainly bodes well for the Hawks’ coming cross country and track seasons.

The weekly Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association statewide rankings has contained a large contingent of Mississippi Valley Conference teams. As the regular season winds, the MVC maintains a strong presence in the poll.

The postseason begins at the end of this week for Class 1A and 2A schools. The bigger schools still have conference and some playoff primers on the slate. Dubuque Wahlert at Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Marion at Central DeWitt are among the highlighted Iowa high school baseball games in Week 8.

Doug Wagemester has been at Kirkwood Community College for 26 years, including 15 as head men’s basketball coach. He has gotten an opportunity to be part of a major-college program at Mississippi State, which is why he is stepping down as Kirkwood’s athletics director.

When her late-afternoon fly ball to right field was lost in the sun, Linn-Mar’s Karsyn Michael was off and running. Her 240-foot race around the bases resulted in an inside-the-park home run, which proved pivotal in the Lions’ 2-1 Mississippi Valley Conference softball win over Cedar Rapids Prairie in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday.

The pairings and paths for high school baseball teams have been set by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. Small classes open postseason next week.

Host Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Prairie split an Iowa high school softball doubleheader Wednesday night in Marion. The Lions won the opener, 2-1, and the Hawks won the nightcap, 4-2.