Jeff Johnson

Iowa City High came into this Mississippi Valley Conference baseball double-header at Mercer Park in Iowa City with a 1.05 team earned run average. The Little Hawks pitched to that ERA here but settled for a split against Dubuque Wahlert.

Catcher-first baseman Nate Baez began this season with the Cedar Rapids Kernels as a part-time player at best. But the 12th-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2023 made so much of the opportunities he did get, he has forced his way into an everyday role and in the three or four hole in the lineup. He is second in the Midwest League in batting average and fourth in OPS.

Ryan Cameron likely is going to be the primary goaltender this coming United States Hockey League season for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. The 17-year-old from suburban Philadelphia recently was named USA Hockey’s Goaltender of the Year after a standout season for Lone Star of the junior North American Hockey League. Cameron participated this weekend at C.R.’s main tryout camp.

Cedar Rapids Prairie grad Corbin Day has gone from teaching part time at Kennedy High School four years ago to a role as “Advanced Scout, Run Production” with Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins. He is with the team daily, home and away, supporting its hitting coaches with game planning and other tasks.

“I don’t even give him the steal sign. He has the green light,” said Kernels Manager Brian Meyer.

Starting pitcher Jose Olivares through a season-high five innings Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium as the Cedar Rapids Kernels beat Lake County, 1-0. The 22-year-old from Venezuela has the makings of a future major leaguer.

He knows them, loves them, is one of them. RoyShawn Webb grew up on the west side of Cedar Rapids, graduated from Jefferson High School and has been picked to take over its boys’ basketball program, the school announced Tuesday. He’s just 25 years old.

UCLA scored twice in the third inning and four times in the fourth to open a 7-0 lead en route to a 9-3 victory over Iowa in the semifinals Saturday afternoon of the Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament. That most likely ends Iowa’s season.

This was a game that didn’t matter. Iowa already had clinched a spot in the Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament semifinals, so it’s pool-play game Thursday night against Indiana was meaningless. The Hoosiers beat the Hawkeyes, 5-0.

Left-handed starter Cade Obermueller threw seven four-hit shutout innings, striking out 10 to lift Iowa past Rutgers, 4-3, in a Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament pool game Wednesday night. The Hawkeyes have clinched a spot in Saturday night’s semifinals against UCLA

The University of Iowa baseball team went 1-8-1 in its final 10 games of the regular season, swept last week by Oregon in a series that determined the Big Ten Conference winner. The Hawkeyes begin play Wednesday at the Big Ten Conference tournament in Omaha, Neb. It’s a tournament that has expanded to 12 teams and employs a unique new format.

Outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez has always been known as a good hitter. A back issue last season with the Cedar Rapids Kernels prevented him from showing that. But he’s healthy this season and hitting a ton the first month and a half of the Midwest League season.

This big Big Ten Conference regular-season ending series in Iowa City this weekend went the way of Oregon on Thursday night. The fifth-ranked Ducks hit four home runs and got stellar pitching in a 10-0, 7-inning pounding of Iowa.

Dwight Gingerich is leaving Hillcrest Academy after 43 seasons as boys’ basketball coach to becoming head men’s basketball coach and athletics director at Goshen College in Indiana. Gingerich is fourth all-time in the state in career victories and a IHSAA Hall of Famer.

Shortstop Kaelen Culpepper was the first-round pick (21st overall) of the Minnesota Twins last summer out of Kansas State. He has flashed his skills in the early going for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in between injuries, including one Wednesday in a 7-6, 11-inning loss to Peoria.