Hawks wrap season with loss to Albia

DONNELLSON — What could have been a little inning turned into a big inning, and it ended Central Lee’s baseball season.
Albia scored all of its runs in the top of the fourth inning for a 5-1 win over the Hawks in Saturday’s Class 2A District 9 final.
The Blue Demons (14-19) advance to Tuesday’s Substate 5 final against Pleasantville (31-1) in Oskaloosa, with the winner moving on to the state tournament.
“I had high hopes,” Central Lee coach Shane Weirather said. “But we just got outplayed tonight.”
The fourth inning turned into chaos for the Hawks, and the Blue Demons took advantage. Two of the runs scored on squeeze bunts, but three throwing errors for the Hawks helped lead to the outburst.
“We didn't do a very good job of at least limiting damage,” Weirather said. “You know, bad stuff's going to happen, and we're going to make mistakes. If it was just a two-run inning there, that’s sure a lot different than a five-run inning. So, good for them. They capitalized on our mistakes and executed a couple of bunts there that did really well, but I think we could have been out of the inning before that.”
Adding to the frustration was what the Hawks couldn’t get in the first and third innings. They had runners on second and third with one out in the first and didn’t score, but how the third inning ended was a sign of the bad fortune to come.

Caedon Newton walked with two outs, then stole second. Blake Davis’ single moved Newton to third, then Davis stole second with Mason Sanders at the plate.
Sanders worked a 3-2 count by fouling off several pitches, then sliced a line drive to left field that was caught by Carson Sohn to end the inning.
“High school baseball is about momentum so much,” Weirather said. “You get a couple (of runs) there in the first inning, with second and third and one out, or Mason’s line drive falls and you get a couple of runs there, maybe it’s a different game. I thought Mason’s hit was going to get by (Sohn) but he made a nice play.”
Central Lee’s lone run came in the bottom of the fourth when Wyatt Day’s sacrifice fly scored Kellen Weber.
But the Hawks would get just one baserunner over the last three innings against Albia starter Jaxon Strickler and reliever Connor McFall.
“Their starter did a good job of hitting the corners, and then the guy they brought in did a good job,” Weirather said.
Central Lee (17-5) had its 10-game winning streak snapped. The Hawks finished the regular season with a share of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division title.
“You just look at it and think, OK, we got to be a pretty good team,” Weirather said. “It didn't happen tonight, but you know we realized some goals and graduated some good seniors. That's the part that you kind of think about tonight. Ward (Fraise) and Carter (Ellingboe), they were good soldiers all the way through the program. We’re going to miss our seniors, and we bring back a lot of starters from this year’s team. We’ll be back.”