Sports

No team could do it in Kee softball’s previous 14 postseason games.

Only two teams had done it in the softball Hawks’ previous 23 postseason games - one of those teams being a State Champion.

The top-rated Kee softball team earned its fifth consecutive trip to the Class 1A regional finals by pulling out an eight-inning nailbiter on the final play Friday, July 6 at home against Central City in the Class 1A Region 4 semifinals. In the bottom of the eighth inning with the score tied 1-1, junior Ashlyn Seitz (batting for sophomore Makayla Peters) hit a pinch-hit lead-off single to right field that then got by the Central City right fielder and allowed her to advance to second base. After a Kee strike-out, senior Nicki Wood laid a bunt down the third base line that was scooped up but the throw to first scooted into the outfield, allowing Peters (who had re-entered the game after Seitz's hit) to score the winning run and advance the Hawks on to the regional finals Monday, July 9 at home against ninth-rated Lisbon, 4-2 semifinal winners over 14th-rated Calamus-Wheatland.

The Kee baseball team posted four wins in five games this past week to clinch a second-place finish in the final Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) standings. The Hawks started the week with a sweep of their final three UIC games, including wins of 12-1 in six innings and 13-0 in five innings at MFL/MarMac Monday, June 25 and 11-2 at North Fayette Valley Wednesday, June 27 in the second half of a June 18 doubleheader postponed by stormy weather. Kee then fell at Class 3A Crestwood Thursday, June 28 by a 7-5 count before finishing the week with an 8-5 non-conference win over Dunkerton Friday, June 29 in a game played at Upper Iowa University in Fayette.

The Hawks’ 16-8 overall record includes a final Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) mark of 12-2 that ended up placing them second in the final UIC standings behind the only league team to beat them this year, Class 1A eighth-rated South Winneshiek, who won the UIC crown with a 13-1 record.

The Waukon baseball team sandwiched a pair of non-conference victories between Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) defeats this past week to win two of five games played on four consecutive nights. The baseball Tribe opened the week with a doubleheader loss at Class 2A seventh-rated New Hampton Tuesday, June 26 by scores of 3-0 and 12-4 before posting back-to-back non-conference victories of 24-4 at Starmont Wednesday, June 27 and 10-0 in five innings at home over Postville Thursday, June 28. The Indians wrapped up the week with an 8-0 loss at home against Crestwood Friday, June 29.

The Waukon softball team wrapped up its regular season schedule this past week with book-end victories, winning three of seven games in a very busy final week of 2018 regulation play. That week started with a 7-4 Indian victory at home over Decorah Monday, June 25 in a game postponed from the second half of a June 20 doubleheader before the Tribe fell in back-to-back Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheaders by scores of 15-3 and 11-4 at home against New Hampton Tuesday, June 26 and 2-1 and 10-0 in six innings at Class 3A 14th-rated Crestwood Thursday, June 28. The softball Tribe wrapped up its busy week and regular season with a doubleheader sweep at Oelwein Friday, June 29, winning by scores of 12-10 and 5-4 in eight innings.

The Kee softball team reigns supreme over the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) for the fifth consecutive year, closing out its 2018 season with three final doubleheader sweeps this past week to claim its third consecutive undefeated UIC crown and extend its current league win streak to 60 consecutive games dating back to a lone Upper Iowa Conference loss to North Fayette Valley during the 2015 season. This season’s unblemished UIC mark of 16-0 continued to be compiled in dominating fashion again this season, as the Kee girls outscored their league opponents by a combined 205-3 result but did not get a chance to face North Fayette Valley in UIC play this summer after an already postponed June 20 doubleheader was again called off due to weather this past Tuesday, June 26 and has no room to be made up due to postseason tournament play already getting underway this week.

The Waukon baseball team played through a winless week, coming within a run or two in nearly half of this week’s games to almost produce a much different result for the week. A full slate of five Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) contests all ended up shy of the win column, including a 15-6 loss at home to Class 3A eighth-rated Waverly-Shell Rock Monday, June 18, a doubleheader loss suffered at home to Class 3A ninth-rated Decorah by scores of 13-0 in five innings and 14-2 in six frames Tuesday, June 19, a 3-1 home loss to Oelwein Wednesday, June 20 and a 3-1 loss at Decorah Friday, June 22. The Tribe was then swept in two games in its own Jeff Houg Tournament Saturday, June 23, falling to Class 1A eighth-rated South Winneshiek, 9-2, and then to Kee by just a 15-14 final result.

The Waukon softball team rode a bit of a rollercoaster this week to ultimately win three of five games played and currently hold an 8-14 season record, including a 3-8 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play. That rollercoaster began with a 12-0 loss at Class 4A top-rated Charles City in three innings Monday, June 18 before scoring a NEIC win, 10-5, at home over Decorah in the first half of a doubleheader that had its second half rained out and postponed to Monday, June 25. The softball Tribe then played three games in the Decorah Tournament Saturday, June 23, defeating Osage, 12-2, in five innings to open the tournament before falling to Class 1A top-rated Kee, 13-0 in three innings, and then defeating Central Elkader, 3-2, to claim third place.

A busy week for the Kee softball team got considerably lighter with the rainy weather that rolled through the area this past week, cutting the Lady Hawks’ game load nearly in half by week’s end but all five of their games played ending up in the win column. The lone competition that remained prior to the weekend for the Hawks was a Monday, June 18 home doubleheader sweep of Central Elkader by scores of 12-2 in five innings and 12-0 in three innings. The Hawks then rolled through the Decorah Tournament Saturday, June 23, winning all three of their games by scores of 4-0 over St. Ansgar, 13-0 in three innings over Waukon and 12-6 over Decorah to win the tournament and improve to 24-4 on the season, including a yet unblemished 12-0 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play.

The Kee baseball team had its limited schedule for this past week end up a bit more limited by Mother Nature, as stormy weather rained out the second half of the Hawks’ lone weekday competition, a Monday, June 18 doubleheader at North Fayette Valley that began with a 9-3 Kee win before game two was postponed to June 26. In the Hawks’ only other competition date of the week, they played two games in the Jeff Houg Tournament hosted by Waukon Saturday, June 23, falling by just a 7-6 count in their first game with fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad, Class 1A eighth-rated South Winneshiek, before edging out a 15-14 win in game two against the host Waukon Indians.