Jeff Johnson

The Cedar Rapids Prairie baseball team won a pair of regular-season games over Cedar Falls by mercy rule. Both games lasted only five innings. Their third matchup this season was Wednesday night in a Class 4A substate final, and while the game went all seven innings, an 11-4 Hawks victory still was decisive.

The East Buchanan baseball team upset fifth-ranked North Linn, 5-4, in Tuesday night’s Class 1A substate final game at Independence. It is the first state tournament berth for the school.

Marion High School grad Owen Puk had a couple of inconsistent college baseball seasons at Florida International University in Miami, as well as a missed season because of Tommy John surgery. But he put things together this past season, which led to the pitcher being taken Monday in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the Washington Nationals. He will sign a contract and turn pro.

Clear Creek Amana baseball coach Bryan McCray didn’t know who his team’s starting pitcher was going to be for its Class 3A substate semifinal Monday night, even just hours before the game. Robert Meade was the choice, and he made his coach look like a genius, throwing a seven-hit shutout in CCA’s 3-0 win over Cedar Rapids Xavier.

Kaleb Johnson became an All-American and a NFL draft pick after a stellar season rushing the football for the 2024 Iowa Hawkeyes. How will Iowa replace his sizable chunk of yardage? Carefully, and probably with multiple guys.

University of Iowa pitcher Cade Obermueller was taken by the Texas Rangers in the 19th round of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft, but bet on himself that he’d perform well enough to improve his stock for 2025, not signing. He was correct, as the Philadelphia Phillies took him Sunday night in the second round.

Iowa City West scored three times in the bottom of the first inning of a Class 4A substate opener Saturday afternoon. But Linn-Mar scored the final seven runs, all in their final three at-bats, to pick up a 7-3 victory.

Cedar Rapids Prairie beats Waterloo East in substate opener Saturday, July 12, 2025, postponed from Friday night because of rain, ended after four and a half innings via mercy rule.

Iowa Hawkeyes graduate transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski has been given the all clear sign medically after offseason shoulder surgery and has been going through summer informal workouts, trying to get to know his teammates. In that vein, he took his offensive linemen to the Lake of the Ozarks for a recent relaxation trip and some of his wide receivers and tight ends to Dallas. He also recently competed at the Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana, a camp run by the famous football family.

You all know about Mason Bechen, Cole Griffith and Cael Benesh, three senior multi-year starters for the North Linn baseball team. But those three didn’t shine as much in a 13-13, six-inning Class 1A district win Tuesday night over Midland as some of these young buck: freshmen, sophomores and eighth-graders that seem certain to keep the Lynx on the winning track in the future.

Quad Cities River Bandits infielder Sam Kulasingam went 2-for-4 Sunday in his team’s 5-3 win over the Cedar Rapids Kernels. He’s an Air Force Academy graduate who is obligated for four years of military service after his pro baseball career ends, even if he makes it to the major leagues.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels and Quad Cities River Bandits played three times earlier this week in Davenport and are playing three times this weekend in Cedar Rapids. It’s the first time they have opposed each other this Midwest League season, despite the clubs being in the same division and only 80 miles apart geographically.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels won the Midwest League Western Division first-half championship but went into Friday night’s July 4th home game against Quad Cities just 4-8 in the MWL’s second half. They haven’t played especially sound baseball, though Manager Brian Meyer pointed out every team has those spells in a long 132-game season.

Former Iowa Hawkeyes forward and Cedar Rapids Prairie graduate Keegan Murray showed off a sweet left-handed stroke while playing in Monday’s Zach Johnson Foundation Classic at Elmcrest Country Club. He just completed his third season with the Sacramento Kings of the NBA and has been the subject of trade speculation, which he knows is just part of the deal in professional sports.

Relief pitcher Hunter Hoopes has had a good season, getting promoted from low-Class A Fort Myers to the high-A Cedar Rapids Kernels in early June. He was signed by the parent Minnesota Twins in July 2024 after a video was posted to YouTube of him throwing a fastball 100 miles per hour as an instructor at Tread Athletics, a pitching training and development company in North Carolina.