Sports

The Harpers Ferry Fireflies traveled to West Des Moines Saturday and Sunday, June 7-8 for the Granny Basketball State Tournament. The Fireflies won four of six games they played in the tournament, including a loss in the championship game to make the Fireflies this year’s State Tournament Runner-Up.

During day one of Pool Play competition at the tournament, the Fireflies played three games and won two of those three, falling in their first game by a single point, 49-48, to the Late Bloomers before recording victories of 73-28 over the Classic Mustangs and 70-50 over the Dubuque Kipper Klippers.

The Kee baseball team played to a week’s result of 5-2, recovering from its first two Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) losses of this season early in the week to roll through its five remaining games. Those two UIC defeats came right away in the week, as the Hawks fell to MFL/MarMac at home Monday, June 16 in a battle for the UIC lead by scores 7-2 and 6-5, but Kee’s diamond dwellers swept the remainder of their opponents for the week, starting with a 3-1 home win over South Winneshiek Tuesday, June 17. A sweep of a Wednesday, June 18  doubleheader came at the expense of two different opponents in rescheduled games, at the Hawks claimed a 7-6 win over Waukon in game one before blasting North Fayette Valley, 13-3 in six innings. The Hawks then wrapped up their week with a 19-9 win in extra innings at Clayton Ridge Thursday, June 19 before also having to go to extra innings before pulling out a 1-0 win at home over Osage Saturday, June 21.

The Class 1A 12th-rated Kee softball team played through its busiest week of the season, battling its way through nine games played and putting six of those in the win column. Those six wins all came against fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squads, both in and out of actual UIC play this past week, as the Lady Hawks opened their week with a home doubleheader sweep of MFL/MarMac Monday, June 16 by scores of 10-2 and 8-0, both in a mercy-rule five innings, before falling to Class 2A 11th-rated Jesup Tuesday, June 17 by an 18-9 count and then sweeping another home doubleheader Wednesday, June 18, this time by scores of 8-3 and 8-0 mercy rule in five innings over Turkey Valley.

The Waukon softball team ended up with a bit of a lighter load than originally anticipated this past week, but the end to the week still proved to be heavy with competition, as the Lady Indians put two of five games fully completed this past week into the win column. Their week began with a Tuesday, June 17 non-conference road date at South Winneshiek that saw the diamond Tribe play to a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning before Mother Nature took control and suspended the game with stormy weather, with completion of the game still pending as of press time for this week’s edition.

The Waukon baseball team’s single-win week in five games played came close to being so much more, as three of the Tribe’s four losses on the week came by a combined four runs. The Indians first fell at East Buchanan by an 11-5 result at East Buchanan Tuesday, June 17 before suffering a 7-6 loss at Class 1A eighth-rated Kee Wednesday, June 18 and then coming up just shy in a Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheader at Decorah Friday, June 20 by scores of 2-1 and 7-5. The diamond Tribe wrapped up the week with a 15-14 comeback victory on the game’s final play of a back-and-forth home battle with Riceville Saturday, June 21.

The Waukon softball team played its lightest schedule of the season thus far with just three games this past week. Those three games of this past week followed a pair of Saturday, June 7 contests at the North Fayette Valley Tournament in West Union that are featured in this week’s write-up and included a 6-3 loss to Turkey Valley and 17-0 loss in three innings to Class 2A ninth-rated Osage. The three Indian contests that followed during this past week were all played in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) action at home, with the Tribe falling in all three by mercy-rule scores of 12-2 in six innings and 13-3 in four frames in a Tuesday, June 10 home doubleheader with New Hampton, and by a 14-1 final result in five innings to Charles City Thursday, June 12 in a game also played at home.

The Kee softball team came up one game shy of an undefeated week on the diamond this past week, having what amounted to a 12-game win streak finally snapped but needing a Class 2A top-five ranked team to bring a halt to that success, and only after a comeback effort on the part of that highly-regarded squad. Prior to its seven games played this past week, Kee’s diamond dwellers swept two games in the Saturday, June 7 competition of the North Fayette Invitational, posting a 15-5 mercy-rule win over Oelwein before upsetting Class 1A eighth-rated Edgewood-Colesburg by a 9-2 final result. Details of those two June 7 games are also included in this week’s coverage.

A strong start to this past week for the Waukon baseball team with wins in its first two games was derailed somewhat with losses in the diamond Tribe’s final three contests of the week. Prior to those results of this most immediate past week, the Indians battled Decorah to a pair of narrow losses at home Saturday, June 7 by scores of 7-5 and 10-9 in games rescheduled from an original June 3 date that was rained out.

The diamond Tribe then opened up this past week with a 7-0 road win at North Fayette Valley Monday, June 9 before splitting a road doubleheader at the home of a New Hampton squad recently ranked among Class 2A’s top-10 teams, securing a 5-1 win in game one before falling by a 9-1 count in the nightcap. The Indians wrapped up their week with another road doubleheader Friday, June 13, falling at Crestwood by scores of 3-1 and 3-0.

The Kee baseball team played to an undefeated week in five games on its schedule for the week, adding three more victories to its undefeated Upper Iowa Conference season at this point in the summer. Prior to this past undefeated week, the Hawks split two games at the Iowa Valley Triangular in Marengo Saturday, June 7, edging out Tipton by a 10-8 result before falling to the host Iowa Valley Tigers by just a 7-6 count in eight innings, with details of those two contests being included in this week’s Kee baseball coverage.

The Waukon baseball team played five games this past week, opening up its Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) season by putting two of those games in the win column. The week was supposed to begin with a Tuesday, June 3 home doubleheader against Decorah, but rain postponed that match-up to Saturday, June 7, when the diamond Tribe played the Vikings to narrow losses of just 5-3 and 10-9, with details of those two Saturday games being printed in the June 18 edition of The Standard. Prior to that make-up date, the Indians fell at home to Kee Wednesday, June 4 by a 7-1 result, and then opened their NEIC season with a home doubleheader sweep of Charles City Friday, June 6 by scores of 10-0 and 2-0.