Sports

The Waukon softball team had its 2019 season brought to a close in the opening round of its Class 3A Regional Tournament, falling at the home of fellow Northeast Iowa Conference squad Crestwood Wednesday, July 10 by a score of 3-0. The Indians had just closed out their regular season against the same Cadets just a week earlier, falling by scores off 11-1 and just 2-1, with this postseason opener being closer to that second result but the Indians still struggling to mount much offense against Crestwood.

The loss completed the Tribe’s 2019 campaign with a 14-19 overall record that includes a 5-13 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the Indians fifth in the final seven-team NEIC standings. Crestwood’s victory over Waukon advanced the Cadets to the Class 3A Region 6 semifinals, where they lost at eighth-rated Anamosa Friday, July 12 by a 3-0 final result to have their season ended.

The Kee baseball team both began and ended this past week with dates that involved victories over Turkey Valley, the first of those further clinching a second-place finish in the final Upper Iowa Conference standings and the second getting the Hawks’ postseason journey successfully underway. The Kee boys opened the week at Turkey Valley, sweeping two games as part of a triangular event Monday, July 8, 12-2 in five innings over the Trojans and 3-2 over West Fork. A Tuesday, July 9 non-conference date at Riceville was postponed to Thursday, July 11, with the Hawks hanging a 14-1 mercy-rule win over the host Wildcats to wrap up their regular season with a 23-8 season record that includes a 10-2 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play.

The Waukon baseball team pieced together just its second win streak of the season, wrapping up its regular season and beginning its postseason in victorious fashion this past week. Prior to that streak, the Indians fell to Class 4A Dubuque Senior at the University of Dubuque baseball field Tuesday, July 9 before closing out their regular season like they started it, posting a non-conference win, 13-3 in five innings, at Postville Wednesday, July 10 in a game postponed from Friday, July 5.

The Waukon baseball team played through a week outside the win column in three games against some of the more traditional powers in Iowa high school baseball at some unique sites this past week. The Indians first fell to West Delaware, 13-3 in five innings, at the Mt. Mercy University baseball field in Cedar Rapids Tuesday, June 2 before playing in the Waterloo Columbus Tournament Saturday, June 6 at Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo - home of the Waterloo Bucks, where the baseball Tribe forged a pair of late comeback efforts that just missed their mark, first falling to the host school, 7-4, in the opening round and then coming up just short against Class 1A second-rated Martensdale-St. Mary’s, 6-5, in the tournament’s consolation game.

The Kee softball team wrapped up its regular season with two final games this past week, splitting that non-conference pair to finish the regular season with a 21-17 overall record, including a 14-2 mark that placed the Lady Hawks as this season’s Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) runner-up behind a North Fayette Valley team that posted a 15-1 UIC record, owning Kee’s only two UIC losses of the season along the way and denying the Lady Hawks the UIC season title for the first time since the 2013 season. The Kee girls opened this past week with an 11-2 home win over Sumner-Fredericksburg Tuesday, July 2 before falling to Class 1A third-rated Clarksville at home Wednesday, July 3 by an 11-1 result in five innings.

The Kee baseball team was limited to just a pair of games this past week, splitting those two contests that turned out to be half of what was originally scheduled. The Hawks first defeated Turkey Valley at home, 14-4 in six innings, Monday, July 1 in the first half of a home doubleheader that had the second game postponed until Monday, July 8 at Turkey Valley due to weather. The Kee boys then fell at Wapsie Valley, 7-4, Friday, July 5 in what turned out to be just a single game for the Hawks from an originally scheduled triangular event that was supposed to include Dunkerton and be played at Upper Iowa University in Fayette.

The Waukon softball team brought its regular season to a close this past week, winning one of its three final games, all in Northeast Iowa Conference play. The week started with trekking in some unfamiliar territory, as the softball Tribe’s 7-1 win at Waverly-Shell Rock Tuesday, July 2 marked the first time since the 2012 season the Indians won a season series against the Go-Hawks, having split a doubleheader at Waverly earlier this season for Waukon’s first win over the Go-Hawks since that same 2012 season. The Lady Indians wrapped up the week, and their regular season, suffering a season sweep at the hands of Crestwood, falling in a road doubleheader rescheduled from June 27 at the home of the Cadets by scores of 11-1 in six innings and just 2-1 Wednesday, July 3.

Another busy week of eight games for the Kee softball team saw the Lady Hawks win six of those eight games, giving life to another Upper Iowa Conference winning streak with two more sweeps of league opponents before splitting four games at a weekend tournament. The Kee softballers first posted wins of 4-2 and 11-1 in six innings over MFL/MarMac at home Monday, June 24 before doing likewise Wednesday, June 26 with West Central at home as well, 12-2 and 13-1, both in just five innings. The Hawks then played four games in the annual Don Bosco Tournament, splitting two games both Friday, June 28 - a 12-5 loss to Class 2A ninth-rated East Marshall before defeating Don Bosco, 9-8, in a 10-inning marathon - and Saturday, June 29 - a 14-3 loss to Class 3A fifth-rated Waterloo Columbus followed by a 13-3 win over West Marshall.

The Kee baseball team traveled near the end of each spectrum of success this past week and also ended up on each end of the win-loss spectrum in doing so. The Hawks first swept an Upper Iowa Conference pair at winless Postville Monday, June 24 by equal scores of 12-1 in five and seven innings before battling Class 2A fifth-rated New Hampton to just a 4-3 defeat Wednesday, June 26.

The Hawks were also supposed to play a non-conference doubleheader at home against Crestwood Thursday, June 27. That home twinbill was called off due to rainy weather and is not scheduled to be made up.

In what turned out to be its only competition of the week, the Waukon softball team traveled to New Hampton Tuesday, June 25 for its final road doubleheader of the 2019 season against a Class 3A 12th-rated Chickasaw team sitting in second place in the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings and hosting its final NEIC contest of the summer. The Tribe diamond dwellers battled the single-digit loss Chickasaws closely in game one before having that game yanked away, 4-3, with a walk-off solo homerun, but was then limited to just four hits in falling by a 9-2 result in game two.