Kee baseball team plays to 26-11 season record, third-place team finish in UIC

The 2024 Kee baseball season showed a step forward this season as the diamond Hawks returned all but one player from last season’s squad that played to an even season record and turned in a winning campaign of 26-11 this summer. That overall result included a 13-5 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Hawks third in the final UIC standings behind the only two teams to beat them in league play, UIC Champion South Winneshiek and UIC Runner-Up MFL/MarMac.

“We improved from a 19-19 season in 2023 to a 26-11 season in 2024,” Kee baseball coach Jim Mauss reflected. “We bring back two-thirds of our starting line-up in 2025, so I’m hopeful we can make another jump from where 2024 left off.”

More than one-third of this season’s losses came to that South Winneshiek squad that played its way to the Class 1A State Tournament for the fifth time in the past six seasons but still remains in search of its first State Tournament victory after another first-round loss at the season grand finale. Those four losses to the Warriors included three regular season defeats in UIC play and another classic battle in postseason play that resulted in just a 3-1 end to Kee’s season in a district championship clash.

The injury bug took a bite out of the Hawk hopes this season, as the junior pair of Jordan Cota and Dalton Mudderman were somewhat limited in their mound efforts due to arm ailments. Despite those mound absences making their presence known, especially during a six-game skid over the course of four days in mid-June after a 17-3 start to the season, those vacancies did provide opportunities for other players to make contributions and hone their own skills in ways they may not have otherwise experienced.

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