Fort Dodge foils Kennedy again

DES MOINES - There has to be a curse.A 4-2 loss in a Class 4A semifinal last night at Principal Park marked the second year in a row Cedar Rapids Kennedy has been eliminated from the state baseball tournament by Fort Dodge. It was the quarterfinals last year.The Dodgers also swept a 2011 regular-season double-header. So look at it this way: Kennedy (33-7) lost 16 games the last two seasons and one quarter were to the same blankety blank team.Got to be a curse.“They're a great team,” said Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer. “They're well coached, they do some really good things. We've had better moments, played better against other teams. We just haven't played very well against these guys.” The way the game ended was a perfect representation of Kennedy's offensive frustrations on this night. With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the seventh, Cody Bell lined a single to left field to score two runs.The throw from the outfield airmailed the cutoff man, but Fort Dodge catcher Devon Harms threw a strike to third base to nail Josh Jahlas, who was trying to move up. Had he been successful, Kennedy would have had the tying runs in scoring position since Bell was trailing Jahlas into second.Instead the game was over.“I saw an open base, and I saw an overthrow of the third baseman, so I just tried to go,” Jahlas said through tears. “It didn't work this time.”"Right after it happened, I just kind of thought to myself 'Did we really win the game that way?'" said Fort Dodge Coach Matt Elsbecker. "We'll take it."Jahlas was nearly inconsolable after he was tagged out, burying his head into the dirt at third base and sobbing as he walked off the field, with Hoyer putting a comforting arm around him and talking to him.“It's a tough way for it to end,” Hoyer said. “But too many mistakes throughout the game before that point. (The last play) didn't lose us the game. Too many other mistakes before that did.”Kennedy got its leadoff hitter on against Fort Dodge sophomore starting pitcher J.C. Hatcher (6-0) the first six innings but could make nothing of it. The Cougars stranded runners at third base in the first and second innings and at second base in the third.The fourth inning ended when pinch runner Jared Staton was called out for leaving second base too early on a tag. Hatcher seemed to be on the verge of trouble all night, but never paid for it.“That's baseball,” said Kennedy's Devon Jacobus. “Sometimes you don't get a runner on and you start something late (in the inning), sometimes you get runners on early ... We just couldn't get the clutch hit."

Fort Dodge scored all of its runs in the fourth against losing pitcher Adam Lloyd (9-2). Tyler Vaughn singled up the middle leading off, then Harms reached on a bunt single.Hatcher also bunted, with Lloyd taking a risk he probably shouldn't have by trying to get the out at third. Vaughn beat his throw, and the Dodgers had the bases loaded.Ninth-place hitter Austin Halligan lined a two-run single to right, a wild pitch scored a third run, and Luke VanderMaten a fourth with an RBI single to center. In short, Fort Dodge did everything that inning Kennedy couldn't do the entire game."We just didn't execute offensively tonight," Hoyer said. "We made some mistakes there in that inning where they scored their runs, but we certainly had some opportunities ourselves. I felt like if we held them to four runs or less, we'd be in great shape the way our offense is. We just couldn't string hits together tonight."It was an extremely tough way to go out for a 12-player senior class, many of whom played on Kennedy's state championship team in 2010."They've had a hell of a run," Hoyer said. "Their efforts on a day-to-day basis were phenomenal. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to coach them. It's been a lot of fun, a great ride. I'm very proud of them."Here is the game boxscore:

Fort Dodge Vs