Iowa City Regina baseball team goes through the process, attains its state tourney goal

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jeff Pacha apologized for the cliche, but he really believes in it.

'I'm a goal-oriented person,' the Iowa City Regina baseball coach said. 'At the beginning of the year, we had to understand what our goals were. It's about, as a team, playing your best baseball at the end of the season. It's a process to get there.'

The process has led to the goal. No question Regina is playing its best ball of the season as it enters its Class 2A quarterfinal game Monday morning at the state tournament.

The Regals (27-7) have won eight in a row and 13 of 14, and are the fourth seed. Regina plays fifth-seeded Treynor (32-4) at 11 a.m. at Principal Park in Des Moines.

'It's been a lot of fun,' Pacha said. 'We've kind of had a business-like approach to it. The kids have been pretty locked in.'

'It's definitely a process, definitely a grind,' said Regina junior Blake Berns. 'I thought we started out the season really hot, but just because you start off the season hot, that doesn't mean you're going to end well. You're going to have a slump, obviously, somewhere. Everyone does. But we've been going through that process, and I think that's going to help us in this game.'

Roster composition always is such an intriguing thing, especially at the smaller-school level, and Regina's roster is intriguing. There aren't any seniors, with 10 of the 16 members being juniors.

That portends well for the future, though the Regals are concentrated only on the present.

'Treynor has played some pretty good teams,' said junior center fielder Jayden Kies. 'We've just got to worry about ourselves. Just play loose, play calm.'

'This group of guys, they know what they want,' Pacha said.

Only three of Regina's losses have come to 2A schools, and it avenged two of them by beating Wilton in the substate finals, 11-7. The Regals trailed that game after four innings, 4-0, but scored seven times in the fifth and four times in the sixth.

Dyersville Beckman (29-11) is the top seed in the 2A field, drawing Denver (18-14) in a 1:30 p.m. quarterfinal. It is sure to be an emotional trip for the Blazers, whose head coach, Tom Jenk Jr., has missed the entire season because of an inoperable brain tumor.

The other 2A quarterfinal matchups are second-seeded Van Meter (30-4) versus Carroll Kuemper (20-12) and third-seeded Estherville-Lincoln Central (23-6) against Centerville (23-10).

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