Sports

In what turned out to be somewhat of a defensive battle right to the very end on the scoreboard, the Waukon baseball team had its 2020 season brought to an end in the opening round of the Class 2A District 6 Tournament Monday, July 13. In a game played at New Hampton against a combined team from Sumner-Fredericksburg and Tripoli High Schools (SFT), the game came right down to the final play, which ended up being a one-out game-winning single with the bases full of Cougars to bring the baseball Tribe’s season to a halt with a 2-1 loss.

The Waukon softball team had its 2020 season brought to a close by one of the best teams in all of Class 3A when the Indians traveled to 11th-rated Crestwood Wednesday, July 15. Having been swept by the highly-regarded Cadets by scores of 9-0 early in the season and 12-0 in three innings just over a week ago, the Lady Indians put an abrupt end to their scoring drought against Crestwood right away in the opening frame and even held a 1-0 lead over the Cadets midway through the contest, but ultimately allowed seven unanswered runs during Crestwood’s final three innings at the plate to put up their best fight of this season against the Cadets before falling by a 7-1 final result.

The 2020 Kee softball season was brought to a close this past week in a busy week of postseason play, but it took one of Class 1A’s highly-regarded teams to accomplish that feat. The Lady Hawks first ran through a couple fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squads to start the week, ending South Winneshiek’s season with a 7-1 first-round regional victory at home Monday, July 13 before blasting their way past UIC season champion Turkey Valley by a 19-10 result Wednesday, July 15 at the home of the single-loss Trojans. Kee’s postseason run was finally brought to a close at 12th-rated Mason City Newman Friday, July 17 as the Hawks suffered a 12-2 defeat in five innings on the Knights’ home field to bring their 2020 campaign to a close.

The Kee baseball team had its 2020 season brought to a close by a familiar foe from the Upper Iowa Conference, as the Hawks fell by an 8-2 result in the Class 1A District 6 semifinal round of play at MFL/MarMac Tuesday, July 14. The Hawks had lost to the 11-5 Bulldogs early on during the regular season, 9-1, and despite knocking the ball around nearly as well as the host squad in tournament play for just a 10-7 MFL/MarMac hit advantage, the Bulldogs were able to take better advantage of the opportunities they were granted in combination with those hits.

The Waukon softball team brought its 2020 regular season to a close this past week with four final games all initially scheduled on four consecutive nights and involving a pair of top-15 ranked opponents to start the week. All four of the Tribe’s final games ended up outside the win column, beginning with a 12-0 home loss to Class 3A 12th-rated Crestwood in just three innings Monday, July 6 followed by a 9-5 loss at Class 4A fifth-rated Charles City Tuesday, July 7. The Indians then made up a June 26 postponement at Waverly-Shell Rock Wednesday, July 8, falling by an 8-1 end result, before hosting those same Go-Hawks Friday, July 10 in a rare matinee performance during the day after being rained out the night before, but still falling by a 7-4 final tally.

With a pretty full slate of seven games looming this past week, the Kee softball team had that gameload trimmed to just two games early in the week, as concerns with COVID-19 exposure forced the Lady Hawks to cancel their final four games of that final week of the regular season. A Wednesday, July 8 doubleheader at Clayton Ridge, a single game at home vs. Riceville Thursday, July 9 and a Friday, July 10 doubleheader at North Fayette Valley that had been rescheduled from July 1 were all called off while members of Kee’s softball team awaited COVID-19 test results for precautionary measures.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2020 regular season brought to a close and the start of its 2020 postseason delayed a bit during this past week. The Indians wrapped up their regular season with a split of a doubleheader at Oelwein Tuesday, July 7 but had their Saturday, July 11 Class 2A District Tournament game with Sumner-Fredericksburg postponed until Monday, July 13 due to stormy weather at the game’s location site in New Hampton. The result of that game is printed in the shaded box on this same page, with full details and photos of that contest to appear in the July 22 edition of The Standard.

The final week of the Kee baseball team’s regular season came to a close even earlier than what the Hawks had anticipated, as the final three games on the Kee schedule this past week were all canceled due to concerns with COVID-19 exposure and waiting for COVID-19 test results for precautionary measures. The Hawks’ Wednesday, July 8 doubleheader at MFL/MarMac and a lone game at Riceville Thursday, July 9 were both erased from the schedule during that wait-and-see period, but as it turns out, all test results came back negative for the baseball Hawks, as noted in the following statement released by Kee High School Activities Director Danny Love Friday, July 10:

“After confirmation of zero positive cases of COVID-19 among student athletes, Kee High baseball and softball teams will participate in the postseason. School officials report they will continue to be very mindful of athlete health and safety protocols.”

The Waukon baseball team not only picked up its first win of the abbreviated 2020 season this past week, but did so in a big way in posting a single win in its four games scheduled for the week. That win came in a Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) split at Decorah Tuesday, June 30, the Indians roaring to a 14-4 victory in game one before falling in the nightcap, 7-0. The Tribe then came within a half-inning and a clutch hit of recording a second win, falling in a home NEIC doubleheader to New Hampton by scores of 2-1 and 11-2 Friday, July 3.

Holding a 1-10 season record, 1-9 among NEIC opponents, the Indians were next scheduled to wrap up their regular season with a Tuesday, July 7 road trip to Oelwein before beginning postseason tournament play this Saturday, July 11 in New Hampton, with the Indians’ postseason possibilities printed elsewhere on the July 8, 2020 Sports pages in a shaded box.

The Waukon softball team continues to fight right up to the end of each of their ballgames, doing so again in three games this past week before having all three end up on the short side of their final results. That trio of losses included a 9-5 defeat at Oelwein Monday, June 30 before the Tribe suffered a loss of 13-7 at home to New Hampton Wednesday, July 1 and took Decorah right down to the game’s final out in a 10-9 road loss Friday, July 3.