Prep baseball: Bulldog season comes to a close
· Yahoo Sports
OTTUMWA — Jace Mitchell knew he would be inheriting the role as the ace of the pitching staff for the Ottumwa High School baseball team when the season began.
In his final game on the mound for the Bulldogs, Mitchell pitched like an ace allowing two runs on four hits while striking out 10 batters. It was a performance worthy of a postseason win.
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Against many other pitchers, it would have been good enough to earn Mitchell a postseason win. Adam Bowman, however, ended up on top in a classic substate duel on Saturday at John Hart Stadium.
Bowman, one of the top 10 pitching prospects in the state, showcased his skills for 6 2/3 innings allowing just two infield singles to the Bulldogs and three total baserunners while striking out 13 batters. The Little Hawk senior came within one pitch of a complete-game effort, ultimately handing the ball over to Kane Willey, who struck out Quinn Larsen swinging with the final pitch clinching Iowa City High's 2-0 win over Ottumwa in the Class 4A, Substate 8 quarterfinals.
"When you play in the playoffs, it's always a grind game, especially in this type of match-up," Ottumwa High School head baseball coach Joey Mitchell said. "They had a pitcher on the mound that's been really good all season. He was really good again.
"When it comes to games like this, it comes down to a couple of timely hits. They got them. We didn't."
Jace Mitchell took over as Ottumwa's top pitcher midway through the season from one of the other state's top pitching prospects. Tucker Long wrapped up his final season of high school baseball pitching 20 innings in four starts, striking out 42 batters reaching 250 career strikeouts before moving on the begin his college baseball career at the University of Mississippi.
Mitchell finished an incredible senior season for the Bulldogs both on the mound and at the plate, recording a 1.47 ERA in 43 innings over eight starts while striking out 59 batters. Mitchell also finished leading Ottumwa at the plate with eight home runs, 39 RBIs and a .758 slugging percentage giving the Bulldog senior plenty of confidence heading to Central College to begin his own collegiate baseball career.
"It definitely gives me a lot of confidence that I can go in there and show everyone what I can do," Jace Mitchell said. "Definitely, when it comes to hitting, I kind of struggled early on and found it midway through the season. I just rode with it. I've pitched against a lot of good teams this year and done pretty well against most of them."
Mitchell met an early challenge on Saturday as Iowa City High (22-18) loaded the bases with one out in the opening inning, striking out the last two hitters to keep the Little Hawks off the board. Bowman responded by striking out the side in the opening inning on the way to retiring seven of Ottumwa's first nine hitters on strikeouts.
"I just had the ball moving really well," Bowman said. "I was able to throw all three of my off-speed pitches for strikes. When I can do that, it makes it pretty easy."
Iowa City High brought in the only two runs of the game thanks in large part the biggest swing of the game. Blaine Heick followed a lead-off single by Caden Pauli by driving a ball to center for an RBI double before stealing third base and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Crosby Newton, giving Bowman all the run-support necessary allowing only one ball to leave the infield in the contest retiring the potential tying run at the plate five times including four strikeouts of the potential tying run during the contest.
"When I take too much time in between pitches, that's usually when I get into trouble," Bowman said. "I try to keep my mojo working by going pitch to pitch. I just try to throw the ball and, hopefully, it goes where you want it."
Larsen reached twice in three trips to the plate against Bowman. Mitchell Jordan collected his team-leading 45th hit, beating out an infield single in the third inning for the Bulldogs.
"We were starting to see some things better once we started down the order for the third time," Joey Mitchell said. "We started putting some more balls in play, but it just started for us a little too late."
Iowa City High faced eighth-ranked Waukee Northwest (24-12) in the substate semifinals with the winner heading to third-ranked Indianola (31-4) on Wednesday for a state baseball tournament berth. Ottumwa ends the season with a record of 20-14 in Joey Mitchell's first year as the helm of the Bulldogs.
"Ottumwa baseball has always been a program that team's around the state recognize. We've always been able to put some really good teams together," Joey Mitchell said. "I just look forward to doing that each and every year."