C.R. Kennedy hands C.R. Prairie 1st loss of season

CEDAR RAPIDS — That was a whole lot of baseball.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy handed Cedar Rapids Prairie its first loss of the season, 14-8, Monday night at Kennedy. This two-hour, 20-minute game featured just about everything you could possibly see.

There were 22 runs, of course, and 21 combined hits. There were eight errors, four hit batters, three wild pitches, a couple of passed balls and seven stolen bases.

Oh, and a balk that scored a run.

'Just a nice battle between two top teams in the conference and top teams in the state,' Kennedy's Parker Kalb said. 'When two teams like that come together, you never know what to expect.'

Class 4A eighth-ranked Kennedy (8-2) scored six times in the third ining for an 8-4 lead it never relinquished. Fourth-ranked Prairie (9-1) got three runs back in the fourth, but an unfortunate throwing error with the bases loaded after a nice barehanded fielding play by Hawks third baseman Cooper Reittinger scored three Cougars runs to make it 11-7, and that was it.

Six of Kennedy's 14 runs were unearned. Though the Cougars also had four errors, Prairie didn't have any unearned runs.

'I feel like we just took advantage of their mistakes,' Kalb said. 'That was just a huge play, a big momentum shift. That's really what we needed.'

'You've got to take advantage of the opportunities they give you, and we did a better job of that tonight than they did,' Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer said. 'Because we gave them opportunities, too.'

Jackson Behn, Anthony Alepra and Tyler Dralle had two hits apiece for Kennedy, with Behn driving in three. Kalb had a walk, a hit, an RBI and calmed the game down with 1 2/3 innings of key relief pitching.

'I was just trying to do what Coach Hoyer always tells us to do: hit the mitt,' he said. 'Just throw strikes and let the defense take care of the rest.'

Levi Usher led Prairie with two hits and two RBIs. Blake Viall also had a pair of hits out of the nine hole.

The teams play again Tuesday night at 7 at Prairie.

'Should be another great battle,' Kalb said.

AT C.R. KENNEDY

C.R. Prairie 004 300 1— 8 11 4

C.R. Kennedy 206 330 x—14 10 4

CRP: Jared Street, Keegan Sanborn (3), Harrison Cook (4), T.J. Johnson (5), Mitch Nierling (6) and Nic Mougin. CRK: Chandler Poell, Noah Cronbaugh (4), Parker Kalb (4), Tyler Dralle (6) and Matt Berst. WP—Cronbaugh (1-0). LP—Street (2-1). Offensive highlights — CRP: Levi Usher 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, Blake Viall 2-for-4, RBI. CRK: Jackson Behn 2-for-3, 2 runs, 3 RBI.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com