Big Southeastern inning spoils promising day for Kirkwood baseball

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kirkwood Coach Todd Rima wasn’t going back to the drawing board.

He witnessed some good things from his Eagles. It just didn’t result in a victory.

Seventh-ranked Southeastern scored all of its runs in one inning and thwarted attempts at timely hits for a 7-5 win over the Eagles in an Iowa Community College Athletic Conference baseball game Tuesday at Kirkwood.

“We played clean baseball defensively,” Rima said. “We put together some great at-bats. We hit a lot of balls hard. This isn’t a game where you walk out of here, you lose and think you have to fix everything. We did a lot of positives. We just need to shut down an inning when it gets out of control. If you do that, you win a game.”

The Eagles (24-14, 11-8) controlled the first half of the game. They built a 4-0 lead, getting on the board in the first and third innings. Leadoff hitter Noah Furcht sparked Kirkwood, opening the bottom of the first with a double and scoring on Joe Simpson’s sacrifice fly.

Two innings later, Furcht started things with a line-drive base hit to center. He reached third on back-to-back walks to Alex Ritzer and Cael Frost. Kyle Hayes plated Furcht with a sacrifice fly. Miles Risley’s sacrifice fly brought in Ritzer and Frost scurried home on Trent Burkhalter’s RBI single.

The advantage could have been more but Kirkwood stranded nine batters, including five through four innings. Credit Southeastern’s defense. The Blackhawks (31-10, 15-4) turned a couple double plays and snagged a few line drives that could have been hits.

“We had some chances early to open it up,” Rima said. “We were able to score but we weren’t able to put together the big inning we needed to, but I also think we hit a lot of balls really hard. Can’t fault the kids. We barreled up a lot of baseballs. It just happened to go to them today.”

Kirkwood’s Blaine Harpenau had a solid start, throwing five scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits but had five walks and a hit batsman, which shortened his day. He received a no-decision but stifled most of the Southeastern bats he faced.

“He’s been awesome for us for two years,” Rima said. “We’re going to put him right back out there. He threw well enough to win. We just couldn’t finish it for him.”

The Blackhawks chased Harpenau from the game with a leadoff walk and double by Cole Yearsley. Jose Sallorin followed with a three-run home run on the first pitch he saw on the next at-bat, highlighting a seven-run frame that saw 12 batters step to the plate. Former Independence prep Marcus Beatty had a double and scored on Bryce Phelps’ double that tied the game. Taichi Takao started the inning with the walk and closed the scoring with an RBI single.

“They put together one big inning,” Rima said. “We needed to shut that down. You give up seven to a good team in one inning you’re going to lose.”

Frost continued his impressive season for the Eagles. He is batting .380 and reached base three times, increasing his on-base percentage to .525. he also shares the team lead in 42 runs and is tops with 10 doubles.

“He’s been outstanding,” Rima said. “He’s one of the most competitive kids in our program. He’s our leader. He’s kind of the heart and soul of our team.”

Hayes paced the Eagles with two hits and two RBIs. He added a solo home run, cutting the deficit to two with two outs in the ninth. Hayes hit his 12th home run of the season and packs a punch for Kirkwood.

“It was big to see him extend the game right there,” Rima said. “It gave us hope and gave us a shot.

“As the year goes on, that’s the Kyle Hayes we need to see. When he’s dialed in like that, he’s a special hitter.”

Kirkwood travels to Creston Thursday to play Southwestern.

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