Despite not having a senior on the roster the Van Buren Warriors are headed to the 1A championship. Van Buren jumped out to a 10-0 lead after two innings and took advantage of eight errors by third ranked Van Meter in a 14-4 win in a 1A semifinal round game at the state baseball tournament. They will face Mason City Newman for the title.
Van Buren coach Chad Scott feels a lack of experience has actually been an advantage for his team. “Maybe from a nerves perspective, there’s no finalization to these kids, we know we don’t have any seniors on this team. It may’ve helped us out a little bit, we came out pretty loose,” Scott says.
It was a shocking end to the season for Van Meter which committed five errors before recording the first out of the second inning.
Van Meter coach Eric Trudo says the way they prepared the last 3 days he never would have thought they would have made so many errors.
“It just wasn’t to be today, we tried to get some things going in the third fourth and fifth innnings, but they executed and kept themselves out of the big innings,” Trudo says.
The top-ranked Beckman Catholic Blazers will get a chance to defend their Class 2A state tournament title after cruising to a 13-2, five-inning victory over the six-ranked Roland-Story Norsemen in the semifinals Thursday night at Principal Park.
Second-ranked North Polk defeated fourth-ranked Kuemper Catholic 6-2 in the other semifinal at Principal Park to set up a rematch with Beckman Catholic for the Class 2A state championship.