Iowa Mennonite baseball plays in the district final tonight for a chance to get to the sub-state final.
IMS plays Van Buren, Keosauqua who has score 21 runs in their two post season games, beating Burlington- Notre Dame and WMU in the process.
IMS has beat New London and Lone Tree, both times giving up three runs.
IMS is 13-14 and hitting .309, Cameron Gingerich still leads the way with a .500 average and 26 RBI’s, but there are four other players in the line up with over a .300 average. On the pitching staff, IMS will have to decide who they can go with, but their ace is Cameron Gingerich with a 2.15 ERA, 71 strikeouts and opponents hit .213 off of him, but with having him pitch against Lone Tree, chances are that someone else will have to come in to start tonight.
Van Buren is 22-5 this year and hitting .337 as a team. They are led by the .425 batting average of Robby Laughlin, along with 26 RBI’s and three homeruns. Right behind him is Garrett Saunders with a .395 average and 33 RBI’s with three homeruns. Eight of the nine players who have started every game are hitting over .300.
Pitching wise for Van Buren their best arm is Thomas Fitzsimmons with a 67-1 record, 1.95 ERA, 46 strikeouts and opponents hit just .207. Van Buren has eight pitchers with innings under their belt, and five have ERA’s under 2.00, while two are under 3.00 and only one is over 3.00.
IMS head coach Danny Hershberger said his team worked on things in practice like normal.
“[We] just need to continue to have good at bats, and with this hot weather, keep the guys as fresh as we can, and sharpen up some base running things and some defensive situations and then get ready to go again,” Hershberger said.
IMS and Van Buren play tonight at Fairfield at 7, and you can hear that game right here on KCIIradio.com under radio plus with pregame at 6:30 and first pitch at 7, this game will also be delayed broadcast on AM and FM KCII following the Mid-Prairie game. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.