VICTOR – It’s not the fall that hurts you.
It’s the sudden stop.
The Montezuma Braves battled unbeaten HLV and took a 2-1 lead into HLV’s home half of the sixth inning.
The sudden stop, which in this case played out with agonizing slowness for the Braves, was at hand. It was a six-run Warriors inning that included three straight batters hit by pitches with the bases loaded, a slip, an error, a wild pitch and three HLV hits.
The 7-2 final for HLV left the Warriors celebrating a Class 1A District championship, and the Braves, well, . . .stunned.
The game was played on the hottest evening of the year on Saturday, July 18, with the heat index at 106 degrees at first pitch.
Most of the way, it was a pitching duel between Eddie Burgess for the Braves and Carson Cheney for HLV. Both enjoyed periods of dominance, but both endured some short-lived stretches of having their worlds turned upside down.
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the second. Brody Wolf led off with a double and went to third on a wild pitch. Burgess struck out Beau York, but Ben Thys brought home the run with a ground out to deep shortstop.
Cheney had struck out the side in the second, the start of eight in a row retired by the HLV off-speed artist.
But his streak ended quickly – which foretold, perhaps, what was to come – for Montezuma.
Owen Cook singled to lead off the Braves’ fourth inning, then Connor Van Zee flied out to Brody Wolf in center. Cam Johnson draw a walk. Brayden Arendt then singled so hard to right that the runners could advance just one base. That loaded them up.
Cole Watts then lofted a fly ball to center, but the Braves runner on third didn’t tag up, possibly missing a chance to score. It didn’t matter, though, when Joey Kercheval’s hard grounder to shortstop wound up bouncing around in the outfield after being mishandled, plating two and giving the Braves a 2-1 lead.
Each side turned nice infield double plays and Burgess, retiring four in a row over a stretch in the fourth and fifth innings, started looking dominant.
Connor Van Zee was hit by a pitch to lead off the Montezuma sixth, but was wound up stranded at second base after Cheney knocked down three straight Braves.
Then came the nightmarish sixth inning for Montezuma. It started with a dropped fly ball in center field, when a wild pitch and a walk. Burgess slipped fielding a bunt to load the bases with no one out.
Then, three straight HLV betters were hit by pitches.
Burgess struck out Will Bayer, but the pitch got away, allowing another run to score. Ethan Kupka then plated runs five and six in the inning with a two-run double. In all, 11 batters stood in against Burgess, who re-gathered himself and finished the inning.
Cheney ended it in the seventh by retiring the Braves in order, running his most recent consecutive outs streak to six.
Owen Cook had two of Montezuma’s four hits. Burgess and Arendt had the other two.
Burgess gave up six hits, walked four, hit four and struck out three.
Cheney walked one, struck out three and hit one.
The Braves made two errors to HLV’s one.
HLV takes a 15-0 season record into Tuesday nights Sub-State game in Williamsburg. The Warriors were ranked 10th in Class 1A in the final Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association poll.
Montezuma completed a 7-7 season which saw them come together and play their best ball near the end.
THANKS, SENIORS – It was the final game in the Montezuma careers of Brayden Arendt and Preston Hirsch. Our thanks, also to Chris Varney of KGRN radio and Energy 106.7 for his very professional calls of Montezuma post-season events!
