The rematch of the 2021 Iowa high school baseball Class 4A state championship game ended the same way it did five years ago, with a Pleasant Valley win.
The Spartans won, 6-4, on Tuesday, July 21, but not before Johnston made a strong comeback before just falling short.
Johnston had several opportunities to add runs. From the start in the first inning to a big opportunity in the fourth, but just when they looked beaten and out of it, they rallied and went out with a fight.
The Dragons started the season 3-8 and crawled back to finish 22-3 and make it to their 24th straight state tournament behind Johnston graduate and first-year head coach Nathan Buckallew.
“It was a roller coaster,” Buckallew said. “But I’m extremely content with just being the coach of this program. This program has been instrumental in the overall direction of my life, and being able to step in and hopefully do similar things for the other kids is an honor I hold in the highest regard.”
The Dragons had runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the first, and none came across to score.
In the top of the second, the Dragons got the first out, but a hit by pitch and single put two on with one out. A missed-read on a ball in center field allowed the ball to roll to the warning track and cleared the bases for a 2-0 Pleasant Valley lead.
Then, the Spartans’ Dawson Dales doubled to the right field wall, scoring another run to make it 3-0. Pleasant Valley would add their fourth run in the top of the third, leading 4-0.
In the bottom of the third, Trevin Helming and Mason Tell struck out to end the inning, and the Dragons looked defeated and desperately needed to find a way to swing the momentum.
With just one hit through three innings, Johnston had also struck out six times.
There was another missed opportunity in the bottom of the fourth.
Sam Kinney walked to lead off the inning — Kaleb Kosman and Owen Hupfer would both reach on errors, making it bases loaded with one out. But again, nothing came of it.
The Dragons finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth with two outs. Tell tripled to score pinch runner Logan Rector. Standing on third, Tell stood up, pounded his chest, and got his dugout into the game.
Then the hitting became contagious.
Kinney singled, scoring Tell, making it 6-2. Ahvyance Taylor would single in the next at-bat. Four hits, scored two runs, and all of a sudden there was life for the Dragons at the end of the fifth inning.
Maxim Mincks would enter the game on the bump for Will Davies after his two innings of work and keep the Spartans scoreless in innings four, six, and seven.
Then Mincks delivered at the plate, showing off his two-way play.
And in the bottom of the sixth, after Davies singled on an 0-1 count, the Iowa City Community College commit laced one to deep right field and went out for a two-run homer. Lifting the momentum even more for Johnston.
“When the game gets close, that’s who you want up to bat,” Buckallew said. “I just have full confidence in him that he’s gonna do a good job on the mound, execute pitches, and in the box, he’s going to control the strike zone. We are obviously going to miss him, but he’s a special, special talent.”
Helming walked on the next at-bat, forcing Pleasant Valley coach Derek Stecklein to make a pitching change to Patrick O’Brien after 5 ⅔ innings of work from Lincoln Dalton.
It wasn’t enough as the Dragons fell short, but with 16 players slated to return next season, they have learned what leadership and state-level play is like from the 13 seniors departing.
“We knew going into it this was going to be a dog fight — I’m proud of the way we fought offensively,” Buckallew said. “And if you told me going into that we’d score four runs, I’d say, I’d take four runs any day of the week.”
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Johnston falls to Pleasant Valley in Iowa baseball state tournament
Reporting by Preston Zbroszczyk , Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Preston Zbroszczyk , Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
