I.C. West cruises in rematch with S.C. North

UPDATED: Brian Ray with Photos

They were different teams with different records playing in a different round.But the biggest, well, difference between last season's and this season's state baseball tournament game between Iowa City West and Sioux City North was this simple."No McArdle," said West's Neil Madsen.That's Dean McArdle, the North all-state pitcher who spun a one-hit shuout in last year's Class 4A state championship game. McArdle is far, far away at Stanford University, where he pitched quite a bit as a freshman.West's dangerous offense found his replacements, if you will, extremely hittable Wednesday in an 11-1 quarterfinal whacking at Principal Park. The Trojans (29-8) ended this one via mercy rule with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning."Last year was heartbreak," said West's Ryan Rumpf. "We were a Cinderella team. Nobody thought we could do what we did, get that far. To have it end that quickly, that soon was tough. We came in this year knowing we were a better team. We knew that we were playing well, on top of our game. We wanted to do all that we could to get this win."Rumpf (10-0) did all that he could. He went 2-for-2 with three RBIs - including a ringing two-run, first-inning double off the center-field wall - and tossed a complete-game three-hitter.He threw 90 pitches, which should make him available Saturday night if West makes it back to the finals. Of course, the Trojans have to beat top-seeded Mississippi Valley Conference rival Dubuque Hempstead (33-3) in Friday's 6 p.m. semifinals first.But there was a reason West Coach Charlie Stumpff called for a hit-and-run up eight runs with runners on the corners and two outs in the sixth. Tommy Heinrich singled into left-center to plate both guys and end the game."I feel kind of bad about running and doing things (on the bases)," Stumpff said. "In June, we're not doing that. In July, when Ryan's possibly coming back on Saturday, every pitch counts to us. He threw 90 today, last year he threw more than that against (Cedar Rapids) Washington (in the quarterfinals). He's resilient. We'll talk to him and see if he wants the ball. But I can't imagine he wouldn't."West sprinted to a 7-1 lead, knocking out North starting pitcher Eric McGlauflin (8-3) in the fourth. The first five hitters in the Trojans lineup (Nate Ewing, Sean Moore, Neil Madsen, Rumpf and Spence Bonner) combined for 10 hits and seven runs.Bonner went 3-for-3 and credited having to face Cedar Rapids Xavier's Jon Keller and his mid-90's fastball in the substate finals for achieving that."I think facing Keller really helped us," Bonner said. "This guy (McGlauflin) just really seemed easier. That gave us confidence. Knowing we could come out here and hit the ball and get on base. That was a really big thing."West led all 4A qualifiers with a .375 team batting average coming into this tournament and boosted that number with 12 hits Wednesday."We've been doing it all year," Moore said. "It's just like any other game. Come out here and just hit the ball. Our top of the lineup is fantastic ... We've been doing it all year, so just keep it going.""Our top of the lineup is very good," Stumpff said. "And even (the bottom). I mean, (No. 7 hitter) Neil Flynn is hitting over .500 and he'll battle things. We're a good hitting team. Right now, we're a little bit different than last year. We don't have quite the power we had last year. But I think we're faster, I think we're better contact hitters. We play small (ball) a little bit better."Small equalled large in this case. North finished its season 29-11.Here's a short video interview with Rumpf: