#8 Eagles Win Region 11-A Tournament
Cedar Rapids, IA- The #8 Kirkwood Eagles hosted the Region 11-A Tournament this past weekend as the #1 seed. The other teams in the tournament were #4 seed Iowa Central, #5 seed Ellsworth, and #8 seed Northeast. The winner of the tournament would go on to play the Region 9 Champion for the Northwest Plains A District Championship and a trip to the 2024 National Tournament.
Kirkwood would start off its tournament run against the #8 seed Northeast Hawks on Friday afternoon. Northeast would kick off the action by getting on the board first. The Hawks scored two runs in the top of the first to give themselves the early lead. Kirkwood would respond right away, however, by putting up two of its own runs in the bottom of the inning from RBIs by Peyton Johnson and Sydney Roe. Kirkwood would keep it rolling in the bottom of the second when Lexi Hines hit a double that scored two runs. Although Northeast would score one run, Kirkwood would win the game by a score of 4-3.
Next up was the #4 seed Iowa Central. The Tritons were the first team to score in the top of the 3rd inning. Kirkwood would use a three-run bottom of the 6th to take the lead. RBIs from Sydney Roe, Peyton Johnson, and Brenna Ross are what put Kirkwood on top. The Tritons would use a 4-run top of the 7th to take the lead back and even with a solo home run by Kiya Johnson in the bottom of the 7th, it wasn't enough to take the lead back for Kirkwood. The Tritons would take the game 6-4 despite the Eagles out-hitting them 7 to 5.
The loss to Iowa Central would put the Eagles on the other side of the bracket to take on the Hawks for the 2nd time in 2 days. This time though, Kirkwood would only need 5 innings to dispatch Northeast. An error by the Hawks would get Kirkwood on the board in the bottom of the first. In the bottom of the second inning, singles by Jenn Thurm and Rachel Schlotter and a double by Lexi Hines, each scoring one run, would give Kirkwood a 5-0 lead after two innings. The bottom of the third is where Kirkwood would really separate itself. They would score 8 runs on 10 hits while also hitting for the cycle as a team. Kiya Johnson and Lexi Hines each had a single, Peyton Johnson and Sophia Kreutner each had a double, Rachael Schlotter had a triple, and Sydney Roe would homer to center field. Peyton Paulsen started in the circle for the Eagles. The starting pitcher allowed 0 hits and 0 runs over three innings, striking out eight and walking none. Kirkwood would win this one 17-1, eliminating the Hawks from the tournament.
Region 11-A Tournament now only had two teams left in it to decide a champion, Kirkwood and Iowa Central. With the loss earlier, Kirkwood would need to win two games in order to be crowned champs once again. Solid pitching and a clutch game from Brenna Ross are what would separate Kirkwood in this one. Ross would lead the team with 3 RBIs, going 2-3 on the day. Kirkwood would also score runs from a Delia Schwartz single, Syndey Roe drawing a walk, and Sophia Kreutner being struck by a pitch. Peyton Paulsen started pitching again for Kirkwood, surrendering only 2 hits and 0 runs over six innings, striking out 7 batters.
In the final game of the tournament, Kirkwood would show why it was the #1 seed overall and they would establish that early on. In the bottom of the first, Brenna Ross would single, scoring one run, Sailor Hall would double, scoring three runs, Lexi Hines would single, scoring two runs, an error would score one run, and a sacrifice fly from Sophia Kreutner would score the last run for the Eagles putting them up 8-1 after one inning. Kirkwood would extend their lead by three runs in the bottom of the 2nd thanks to RBI singles from Delia Schwartz and Lexi Hines. The game always seemed out of reach for the Tritons and the Eagles would secure the win 11-3.
With this Region 11-A Tournament win, the Eagles are back-to-back Region 11-A Champions and Region 11 Tournament Champions for the 9th straight season. The Kirkwood Eagles continued and storied success can be attributed to their hard work on and off the field each season. The Eagles will host the Southeast (NE) Bobcats for the Northwest Plains A District Championship this upcoming weekend in the best 2 out of 3 games. Play will start on Friday at 1 PM, followed by another game at 3 PM, and if necessary, the third game will be played on Saturday at 12 PM.
