Walk-off walk gives Cedar Rapids Prairie 14-13 win over Kennedy

MARION – It turned out that Cedar Rapids Prairie had the superior kicker, and that turned out to be the difference in Monday night’s Bob Vrbicek Metro Tournament.

Not really.

This was baseball, just a game that ended with a football-like 14-13 score. Caden Richards’ walk with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning gave Prairie the win over Cedar Rapids Kennedy in a tournament semifinal.

“Holy moly,” said Prairie Coach James Nelson. “It’s one of those things where at the beginning of the year, you’re always like ‘Gosh, is the offense going to be ready to go?’ Can we swing it, are they going to be ready to go? We knew Kennedy was going to come out and play. They are so well coached. We knew it was going to be a battle.”

Prairie won its tournament opener late Monday afternoon over Cedar Rapids Xavier, 13-1, in five innings. The Hawks play Marion for the title Tuesday night.

This looks like a good baseball team. Especially if it can maintain that 13.5 run average from the first two games.

“It’s one of those things where you start grinding,” Nelson said. “That’s the thing about this team. I feel like this group kind of has the ability to score every inning. We’ve got a lot of good guys in the lineup, can pressure (opponents) all the way up and down.”

Kennedy’s Dillon Davis hit for the cycle in a losing effort and drove in seven runs. He and Max White had homers for the Cougars.

Cal Sullivan led off the Prairie seventh with a double to right-center. Brandon Vlcko then reached on a bunt single in which he was just trying to sacrifice Sullivan over to third.

An intentional walk loaded the bases with none out, but Kennedy pitcher Braden Hoyer got a popout and grounder to first that forced Sullivan at the plate. Richards worked a full count and took a Hoyer fastball outside to end the game.

“The second baseman was holding on the runner at second, so I was sitting there waiting, hoping to get an outside fastball to hit it right between that gap. It just never came,” he said. “I thought the 3-1 pitch was actually low … I’ve always been a pretty good taker (of pitches). Always had a good zone. If it was there, I was gonna rip it there, put a good swing on it and hope for the best.”

Kennedy and Linn-Mar will play for third place Tuesday. Xavier and Cedar Rapids Washington get the fifth-place game and Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids Jefferson the seventh-place game.

The Jefferson-Marion quarterfinal was interrupted in the seventh inning when in a bizarre incident, a female fan came onto the field during a play in which a Marion hitter doubled into the left-center gap and chased Jefferson’s pitcher around the infield.

She was eventually tackled by a Jefferson coach and ushered from the Prospect Meadows facility.

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