Sports

The Kee baseball team put together another undefeated week on the field this past week, but this latest series of final result success held much more meaning than any of the Hawks’ couple other unblemished weeks of competition this season. This past week’s four wins began with a final Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) sweep that clinched a share of Kee’s first Upper Iowa Conference season championship since the 2016 season and ended with a successful first step down the Hawks’ postseason tournament road.

The Kee softball team both started and ended its Class 1A postseason tournament trail this past week with two games played that each ended with final scores of 4-3. The Lady Hawks ended up being on each side of those 4-3 results to have their 2021 softball campaign brought to a close in the semifinal round of Class 1A regional tournament play.

The first of those 4-3 final results came in Kee’s first regional tournament game Wednesday, July 7 at home against Edgewood-Colesburg, with the Hawks rebounding from a 3-2 deficit to score the game’s winning run on the final play of the contest for a 4-3 Lady Hawk victory. That win in the quarterfinal round advanced Kee to the regional tournament semifinals at North Butler Friday, July 9, where the Hawks battled back from a 3-0 deficit but ultimately came out on the other end of another 4-3 result to have their season brought to a close.

The Kee baseball team got back on a more winning track this past week, playing to a 5-1 result in six games played. Those five wins began with completion of another pair of season sweeps over two Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) foes, including a Monday, June 28 home doubleheader sweep of North Fayette Valley by scores of 8-2 and 10-2 and a 6-0 win over Turkey Valley at home Thursday, July 1. The Hawks then split a non-conference road doubleheader at Alburnett Friday, July 2, winning game one by a 3-1 result before falling by a 5-1 count in the nightcap, with the Kee boys then wrapping up their week with a 6-0 win at Waukon Saturday, July 3.

An undefeated final week of the regular season for the Kee softball team landed the Lady Hawks atop the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) once again, after finishes just outside that realm in each of the last two seasons. That final sweep included wins of 13-0 and 15-6 at South Winneshiek Monday, June 28 before a similar result at home over North Fayette Valley Wednesday, June 30 resulting in victorious Kee battles of 10-7 and 4-3.

The Waukon softball team brought its regular season schedule to a close with two final games this past week, playing to a split of those final two contests. The positive end of that split was a 6-0 non-conference win at Central Elkader Monday, June 28 before the diamond Tribe’s 2021 regular season was brought to a close with a 9-2 loss at home to Class 3A 11th-rated Crestwood Thursday, July 1 in a final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) contest. That split of the week’s ballgames wrapped up the softball Tribe’s regular season record at an 11-18 overall season result that includes a 3-15 NEIC mark that places the diamond Tribe in seventh place in the seven-team final NEIC standings.

The Waukon baseball team played to a 2-3 result in five games played this week, including a win both inside and outside of Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play. The three losses book-ended the Tribe’s final busy week before postseason play begins, beginning with a road NEIC doubleheader loss at New Hampton Tuesday, June 29 by scores of 8-2 and 10-6 that ended up leaving the Indians just below those same Chickasaws, who hold eight wins in the current NEIC standings.

The diamond Tribe posted back-to-back wins in between its book-end losses, posting an 8-3 victory at Starmont Wednesday, June 30 before wrapping up its Northeast Iowa Conference season with a 9-6 win at home over Crestwood Friday, July 2 that allowed the Indians to win their season series with the Cadets and kept them ahead of that same Crestwood squad at this point in the NEIC team standings. The Indians wrapped up their busy week with a 6-0 home loss to Kee Saturday, July 3.

The Waukon baseball team played to an even split of four games this past week, book-ending a home doubleheader sweep of Oelwein with single losses to the Northeast Iowa Conference’s (NEIC) two front-running teams. The baseball Tribe first fell at home to Waverly-Shell Rock, 12-7, Monday, June 21 before sweeping Oelwein at home by scores of 7-5 and 7-4 Wednesday, June 23. The Indians then came within a play or two of handing NEIC-undefeated Decorah its first league loss of this year, falling by just a 5-4 road result Friday, June 25.

Mother Nature made this past week’s already busy schedule a little less busy for the Waukon softball team, as the Lady Indians had their Decorah Tournament scheduled for Saturday, June 26 rained out. Already playing a schedule of six games in five nights that included a pair of home doubleheaders, all of those six games being in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play, the softball Tribe was able to put just one of those in the win column.

After playing through back-to-back undefeated weeks of competition to piece together a 14-game winning streak, the Kee baseball team ended up being tripped up in three of its five games played this past week, not only snapping that win streak but also having its undefeated Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) season come to an end as well. In suffering their first losses in more than two weeks, the Hawks were also dealing with the loss of junior catcher Buddy Hill to injury, with a timetable for his return not being known for sure at this point.

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