Home runs, good pitching lift Kirkwood baseball in district opener

CEDAR RAPIDS – If there’s any baseball team that won’t take winning the very important first game of a best-of-3 series for granted, it should be Kirkwood.

It was the Eagles who were on the verge of elimination in their NJCAA Division II region championship last weekend before storming back with back-to-back wins over Iowa Central. That included an incredible extra-inning victory in a second game that saw them down four runs in the ninth.

So don’t expect Kirkwood to feel this thing is over and a trip to the World Series is a sure thing, even after a 6-2 win over Miles Community College of Montana. The teams play again Saturday at noon, with an ‘if’ game to follow should it be necessary.

“The challenge is to play every pitch and be ready to go at the beginning of the game,” said Kirkwood Coach Todd Rima. “This is obviously a very good baseball team that we are playing. We gave them a few chances early, but we got out of it without (giving up) big innings. I think that was the difference in the game.”

Kirkwood (41-20) got home runs from Josh Fitzgerald, Justin Martinez and Alex Pendergast for more than enough offense. Its pitching trio of Reece Beuter, Tucker Christensen and Graysen Drezek quieted the bats of a Miles team that came in hitting .337 and averaging 9.7 runs per game.

The Eagles flirted with danger a couple of times, retiring Miles’ prolific hitter Dawson Parry twice with the bases loaded. Parry came in hitting over .500 with an astounding 95 RBIs in his team’s 58 games.

Yet starter Reece Beutel got him to pop out to first in the third inning, with reliever Tucker Christensen getting him on a lineout to right in the fifth. Miles hitters struck out 17 times in the game.

“Going into it, (pitching coach) Anthony Caenepeel did a really good job of just making sure that we’re not really worried about who we’re facing and hitting spots,” said Drezek, who struck out six in his three innings of relief. “Our pitchers today just hit spots and were able to pitch (to) the bigger guy. He’s got some big numbers, and Caenepeel stressed all week that we can’t be afraid of him. We’re just going to go right at him. That’s exactly what we did today.”

Martinez provided the game’s biggest hit with a three-run homer to dead center field in the fourth that gave Kirkwood a 4-0 lead. Miles starting pitcher Jett Hasegawa got Martinez to swing and miss twice at breaking balls, then tried tricking the freshman from Bronx, N.Y., with a fastball on the next pitch.

Martinez’s drive landed on the batter’s eye above the 390-foot sign.

“I was sitting offspeed since he got me with the first two pitches, so I thought he was going to waste one, it being 0-2,” Martinez said. “I just reacted and caught a barrel. I did not think it was a home run. I saw their outfielder running back and thought he had room. I guess the ball just kept traveling.”

Hasegawa gutted his way through 8 1/3 innings for Miles (44-15), so the Pioneers are good with their pitching staff Saturday. Kirkwood wants to make that insignificant.

“Now we just pick it up tomorrow and keep going,” Martinez said.

Kirkwood’s last trip to the NJCAA Division II World Series was in 2018. The event is May 29 through June 4-5 in Enid, Okla.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com