Making their first state tournament appearance in 32 years, the Highland Huskies baseball team (24-6 overall) will be one of the first teams to take the field at Principal Park tonight. The Huskies will open the Class 1A tournament in the quarterfinal round this evening, battling the St. Mary’s Hawks of Remsen (30-5 overall).
The Huskies enter the state tournament on a 14-game winning streak, recording their last loss against the Albia Blue Demons, 6-5, on June 20. Aggressive base running has been a factor in the team’s success, stealing a state-best 218 bags this season. Highland’s intrusive base running caused the No. 6 North Linn Lynx (34-10 overall) to balk in the go-ahead run in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s Class 1A Subdistrict 5 championship game, helping the Huskies to a 3-2 victory. This is Highland’s second trip to the state baseball tournament, and the first since 1984.
Five Huskies have stolen 20 or more bases this season. Senior Spencer Wieland has stolen 53 bases in 30 games, ranking second in the state. Junior Bill Burton has recorded 41 stolen bases, the sixth most in Iowa. Junior Chase Rath has swiped 29 bags, junior Caleb Brase has taken 24 bases, while junior Jake Wood has stole 20.
St. Mary’s dominated the No. 4 Lawton-Bronson Eagles (25-5), 16-1, in five innings in the Class 1A Subdistrict 1 championship Tuesday at LeMars. St. Mary’s jumped on the Eagles with 11 runs in the first three innings to cruise into the state tournament. Junior Jacob Wesselmann is a notable player for the Hawks, who alternates between pitching and third base. Wesselmann posts a 10-2 record on the mound, allowing seven earned runs in 69.1 innings pitched. He has a strikeout to walk ratio of 11.5:1. At the plate, Weeselmann leads the Hawks in hits with 44.
KCII Sports will provide live play-by-play coverage of the Class 1A state quarterfinal between Highland and St. Mary’s, beginning with the pregame show at 4:30 p.m. on AM/FM KCII.