Published: July 16, 2008 07:00 am            

River Kings’ state hopes derailed

Clinton loses to North, falls short of return to state

At the plate, the bats indicated that Clinton High School was ready to head to Dubuque for a substate final baseball game Wednesday. The River Kings couldn't have asked for much better performances from their pitchers, either. Unfortunately for them, a defense worthy of advancing didn't show up, and Davenport North thwarted Clinton's hopes of a return trip to the state tournament.

Despite picking up 13 hits and holding North to one earned run, the River Kings' season ended with an 8-7 setback in an Iowa Class 4A substate semifinal game Monday night at Alliant Energy Field.

“We just didn't make plays that we usually do,” Clinton senior Scott DeAngelis said. “That's going to kill you.

“We didn't expect this.”

While they might not have been expecting another trip to Des Moines, they certainly had to like their chances since they recently had beaten the two teams that were the final hurdles. Just 11 days earlier, the River Kings (24-12) closed the Mississippi Athletic Conference season with a doubleheader sweep of North on the same field. That day they committed just two errors, though. Monday, they made six. As a result, the Wildcats (9-24), will play Dubuque Hempstead on Wednesday with a trip to the state tournament on the line.

Clinton coach Trent Snowden said he didn't think the River Kings were looking past North.

“Saturday and Sunday, we had great practices, especially defensively,” he said. “We were in position to make plays (Monday night). We just didn't make them with throws.”

The fielding woes spoiled a solid outing by DeAngelis, who started for Clinton, and those did not take long to show up.

DeAngelis was headed for a 1-2-3 first inning, but shortstop Jake Mangler committed an error on a grounder by Zach Rohlf with two outs. Rohlf stole second base and scored when Joey Schlader lofted a popup into shallow right field. Tyler Voss, starting at second base with DeAngelis on the mound, got turned around a bit and had to battle the sun as he tried to catch the ball. He couldn't make the play while Rohlf came around to score.

That was only a preview of what was to come ahead, however.

Clinton, which lost the pregame coin flip and was designated the visiting team, pulled even in the top of the second inning on singles by Shawn Winoski, Voss and DeAngelis. But, North reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the second without hitting the ball out of the infield or getting a hit. Eric Reynolds opened the inning by reaching first on a wild pitch as he struck out. It just got worse from there for Clinton.

Kyle Williams bunted back to DeAngelis, who had a play at second base but made a high throw that tipped off the glove of the leaping Mangler. Brian Shorter followed with another bunt that third baseman Tyler Redman picked up and made a wild throw to first base. Reynolds scored on the play, Williams wound up on third and Shorter made it to second. Williams then scored on a fielder's choice for a 3-1 lead before Clinton turned an inning-ending double play.

“We told our kids before the Bettendorf game (an upset win by North over the substate's top seed in Friday's first round) to put runners on and put pressure on the defense,” North coach Cory Wachal said. “You never know what will happen. We were able to bunt the ball. A 30-foot play can turn into the hardest play for the defense.”

Nothing was easy for Clinton's defense Monday, while the opposite seemed true for the Wildcats.

North shortstop Williams robbed Camp of a one-out hit as he made a catch while falling backward into shallow left field in the third, but the River Kings still cut the deficit to 3-2 when Drew Matzen followed with a triple and Austin Krick singled him home.

But, then it was more of the same for Clinton on defense. This time, the Wildcats were helped by two more errors and scored four more unearned runs to go ahead 7-2.

“In one way, it's not a surprise because at times we looked like this,” Snowden said of Clinton's defensive woes during the season. “We had some games when we did not play well on defense. I'm surprised we did it in so many bunches, though. I think we're a pretty good defensive team, but we have had some spells, and tonight was one of them.”

DeAngelis retired the first two batters before walking Rohlf. Schlader followed with another fly ball to shallow right field, and this time, Evan Voss ran in to attempt the catch but bobbled and dropped the ball for Clinton's fourth error. Reynolds delivered a run-scoring single to left field, and he and Schlader each moved up an extra base when Jordan Camp's throw to home plate was off the mark. Mangler then made a wild throw on Williams' grounder, and two more runs scored. Williams took second on a wild pitch and scored on Shorter's single to right field, a slicing ball on which Evan Voss could not make a sliding catch.

“That's probably the worst (feeling), when you have no control over it,” DeAngelis said of being on the mound with defensive letdowns all around him. He left after three innings having allowed only three hits but trailing 7-2, all on unearned runs.

The River Kings kept battling, though, and pulled within 7-5 with three runs in the fourth. Two nice defensive plays by North outfielders kept things from getting worse. Rohlf robbed Redman of a hit with a diving catch in center field to open the inning, and Cody Perreault made a nice running catch toward the right-field line on a fly ball by DeAngelis after Tyler Voss had singled.

“They hit the ball real well, but we were able to make plays,” Wachal said.

Voss moved up on a wild pitch and then scored on Mangler's single up the middle, and after Mangler stole second, Sexton hit another single to center field for the second run. Camp's run-scoring double drove in Sexton and finished the day for North starter Michael Cendrowski (3 2/3 innings, 10 hits, five runs). Schlader moved from catcher to pitcher and walked the fist two batters he faced before getting Winoski to fly out to right to end the threat.

Clinton pulled within 7-6 in the fifth when Redman led off with a double and scored later on DeAngelis' sacrifice fly, but North got that run back in the bottom half of the inning. By then, the Wildcats had accomplished a main goal with their 8-6 lead.

“We wanted to play a five-inning game and hope we could nail it down with Zach,” Wachal said, referring to his top pitcher, Zach Rohlf, who had pitched the win against Bettendorf on Friday.

Clinton still managed to make things interesting against Rohlf. Camp doubled with one out in the sixth, but Rohlf struck out the other three batters. Then, Redman walked with one out in the sixth and scored on a two-out double by DeAngelis, But Adam Rohlf finished off the win with a nice catch in left field on a drive by Mangler, and that was it for Clinton's season.

It was an up-and-down season, at that. The team came in with high expectations after qualifying for the state tournament last summer. The team had twice as many wins as losses but finished below .500 in the MAC. The roller coaster carried on through the postseason.

“It was kind of hard to live up to last year's team, but we still had a pretty good year,” DeAngelis said.

It just ended a little too early for all those involved.

Score by Innings

Clinton 011 310 1 —7 13 6

Davenport North 124 010 x —8 4 0

Scott DeAngelis, Blake Pennock (4), Jake Mangler (6) and Shawn Winoski. Michael Cendrowski, Joey Schlader (4), Zach Rohlf (6), and Schlader, Chris Caudill (4), Schlader (6).

Two or more hits—Clinton, Tyler Voss, Mangler, Jordan Camp, DeAngelis; DN, Eric Reynolds. 2B—Clinton, Mangler, Camp 2, Tyler Redman, DeAngelis. 3B—Clinton, Drew Matzen. RBI—Clinton, DeAngelis 3, Austin Krick, Mangler, Darryl Sexton, Camp; DN, Schlader, Blake Dean, Reynolds 2, Brian Shorter.

Records—Clinton 24-12; Davenport North 9-24.

        

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