Hilmer pitches North-Linn into state tournament

MANCHESTER – North-Linn eighth-grader Jake Hilmer could not possibly have envisioned his first year of varsity baseball playing out this way.

'At the beginning of the year I wouldn't have even dreamed of this,” Hilmer said after pitching North-Linn into the Class 1A state baseball tournament for the first time in school history, 7-3, over Jesup in a Class 1A substate final. 'So this is kind of one of those waiting to wake up kind of things.”

Whatever butterflies were circling young Hilmer's stomach were likely shooed significantly as the Lynx jumped all over Jesup with a six-run first inning. After the first two batters reached on Jesup errors, a one-out walk to Justin Voss loaded the bases. Jesup pitcher Spencer Schmit balked home the game's opening run, then a third Jesup error scored another. Consecutive run-scoring hits by Logan Novak and Brad Pflughaupt preceded a two-run liner up the middle by Sean Boardman and a 6-0 North-Linn lead.

'It's a totally different approach when you've got that six-run lead,” Hilmer said. 'A lot more confidence out there, more relaxed. … When we got that six-run lead, you could see them pressing and ultimately that got us the win.”

His third appearance on the mound in six days began with a flurry of strikeouts, setting down five of the first nine Jesup batters on strikes. Hilmer (12-2) battled out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning, then kept the J-Hawks off the scoreboard despite consecutive two-on, no-out starts to the fifth and sixth frames.

'He wasn't allowing them to get anything going,” North-Linn Coach Travis Griffith said. 'Coming off two days rest the other night, he's been a Superman for us.”

After Jesup tagged reliever Ryan Miller for three runs in the bottom of the seventh, Hilmer returned to record the final two outs, including his eighth strikeout to begin the celebration.

Schmit (5-2) struck out five for Jesup, which ends at 21-13.

North-Linn earned a No. 7 seed and opens the state tournament Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against undefeated Van Buren (29-0) at Principal Park in Des Moines.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com