Sports

The Waukon softball team had its 2023 season brought to a close this past week in regional tournament play, but not before taking an initial step down that postseason path to end up with a split of two Class 3A Region 7 games. The Indians opened their regional tournament schedule with a dramatic, 7-6 win pulled out on the last play of their Thursday, July 6 regional opener at home against Crestwood. Their reward was a regional semifinal match-up with Class 3A’s third-rated team, the Golden Eagles of Dubuque Wahlert, who brought the diamond Tribe’s 2023 campaign to a close with a 12-0 defeat in three innings in Dubuque Saturday, July 8.

For the fourth time this season, the Kee baseball team was facing off against a South Winneshiek team that has been its greatest rival in recent years, with this fourth match-up having much more riding on it than their previous three regular season contests when the two teams took to the field Wednesday, July 5 in Calmar in the Class 1A District 6 semifinals. That rivalry of recent years has produced some classic baseball battles between the two clubs, with this semifinals match-up further adding to that mix as the Hawks gave the host Warriors yet another close battle but ended up surrendering their fourth end result this season by three runs or less, this time by a 4-1 final score that brought Kee’s 2023 season to a close.

The regular season came to an end and postseason play began for the Kee baseball team this past week, all in victorious fashion as the Hawks wrapped up a runner-up team finish in the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) standings and earned advancement down the Class 1A District Tournament trail with their five wins in six days. Those five Kee wins included a doubleheader sweep of North Fayette Valley at home Monday June 26 by scores of 10-0 in six innings and 9-2, two non-conference wins at the Riverfront Stadium home of the Waterloo Bucks Wednesday, June 28, 8-2 over Iowa Valley and 3-1 in eight innings over Green Mountain-Garwin, and a 6-1 victory over Turkey Vally in the opening round of Class 1A District Tournament play at Calmar Saturday, July 1.

The Kee softball team had its regular season, and ultimately its overall 2023 campaign, brought to a close this past week, playing five final games and having the last three of those end up shy of the win column. The Lady Hawks first took a step toward Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) contention with a sweep of two games at West Central Monday, June 26 by scores of 16-2 in four innings and 11-1 in five frames, but had their UIC title hopes derailed Wednesday, June 28 with a doubleheader loss at South Winneshiek, 3-2 and 8-5. Kee’s diamond dwellers kicked off postseason tournament play at home Friday, June 30 with the same West Central team they started this past week with, but did not experience the same result as earlier in the week, battling the Blue Devils through seven innings of scoreless softball before having their season ended by a 2-0 loss in eight frames.

The Waukon baseball team brought its regular season to a close this past week, playing three final games, all on the road. The Indians first wrapped up their Northeast Iowa Conference season with a doubleheader loss at Charles City by scores of 15-8 and 5-4 in 10 innings Monday, June 26 before bringing their overall regular season to a close with a 3-1 loss at MFL/MarMac in Monona Wednesday, June 28.

The Indians wrapped up their regular season with a 15-18 season record that includes a mark of 8-12 that placed them fifth in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) team standings. They are next scheduled to begin Class 2A District Tournament play Wednesday, July 5 against MFL/MarMac at New Hampton.

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The Waukon softball team wrapped up its regular season this past week, playing four final games in four days. With three of those games being played against Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) foes, the Lady Indians opened the week with a doubleheader loss at Charles City by scores of 7-4 and 5-0 Tuesday, June 27 and ended the week with a 3-2 home loss to Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, June 30. In between that NEIC slide, the diamond Tribe recorded its lone win of the week, a 14-0 triumph in five innings at MFL/MarMac Wednesday, June 28.

The Lady Indians finished their regular season with a 15-14 season record that includes a 6-9 mark that placed them fourth in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings. The Lady Indians are next scheduled to open their Class 3A Regional Tournament Thursday, July 6 at home against Crestwood.

The Waukon baseball team saved its best for last this past week, ending an early-week losing streak of four games with a final doubleheader sweep. That week began with home losses of 13-1 in five innings and 3-2 to Class 2A ninth-rated New Hampton Tuesday, June 20 before the diamond Tribe had a pair of games get away in the late innings Thursday, June 22 for losses of 8-4 and 6-5 in 10 innings at Oelwein. The Indians bounced back from that series of losses to payback a doubleheader sweep of Decorah with a sweep of two games on the road Friday, June 23 by scores of 13-9 and 7-3.

Now holding an even 15-15 season record that includes a mark of 8-10 in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play, the Indians were next scheduled to wrap up their regular season schedule with a NEIC doubleheader at Charles City Monday, June 26 before playing at MFL/MarMac Wednesday, June 28. They are then scheduled to begin Class 2A District Tournament play Wednesday, July 5 at New Hampton.

The Kee baseball team played to an even split of six games played this past week, with all of those wins coming in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play. The Hawks opened the week with a pair of narrow losses at UIC-leading South Winneshiek, 6-5 and 3-1, Monday, June 19 before posting a pair of wins at home over Postville Tuesday, June 20, 18-0 in four innings and 12-2 in six frames. The Kee boys also posted a 6-0 win at home over Clayton Ridge Thursday, June 22 before playing in the South Winneshiek Tournament Saturday, June 24, falling to Osage by an 8-7 result before having a second game of the tournament with Williamsburg rained out in just the first inning.

An abbreviated week of competition saw the Waukon softball team win two of three games. Book-ending this past week were two dates on the diamond Tribe’s schedule that ended up not being played, including a Monday, June 19 game at North Fayette Valley called off due to lack of umpires and the Indians opting not to play in the Decorah Tournament Saturday, June 24.

In between those two schedule adjustments, the Lady Indians handed the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC)-leading Decorah Vikings just their second NEIC loss of this season, playing to a split of a Tuesday, June 20 home doubleheader with Decorah that included an 8-3 loss in game one but a 9-7 triumph in the second game. The Tribe wrapped up its week with a 13-8 victory at New Hampton Friday, June 23.

The past week played out to another undefeated week of Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) games for the Kee softball team before ending with mixed results in a large weekend tournament. The Lady Hawks posted a pair of UIC sweeps at home, including wins over Postville Monday, June 19 by scores of 12-0 and 14-0 - both in just three innings, and the same over Central Elkader Wednesday, June 21 by final results of 4-2 and 7-2. Kee’s girls then played in the two-day Don Bosco Tournament Friday and Saturday, June 23-24, with the Hawks falling in two games Friday, 13-3 in five innings to Cedar Falls and 12-4 to Jesup. Saturday’s competition wrapped up the Lady Hawks’ week with a 10-2 win over Janesville shortened by rainy weather, which also cut short the remainder of the tournament, including Kee’s final game with Hudson.