Iowa City High baseball rallies, but falls to Dowling Catholic in state semifinals

Iowa City High's baseball team bowed out of the state tournament with a 6-4 loss to West Des Moines Dowling Catholic on Thursday at Duane Banks Field in a Class 4A semifinal.

The Maroons advance to face Johnston in the championship game Friday evening.

The Little Hawks fell just short of contending for their first baseball title in school history.

Those in attendance got to see City High battle to the end in their home town. But for those who did not witness it, here are three important takeaways from the game.

City High shows heart after an uncharacteristically slow start

The Little Hawks were in big trouble entering the bottom of the fifth inning, but that's when they showed their mettle.

More: Iowa City High baseball shuts out Indianola to advance to state semifinals

Trailing 4-1, City High had registered only two hits and had committed three errors.

But that's when things got interesting.

"Dowling's first pitcher (Jake English) did a nice job of keeping us off balance.," Little Hawks coach Brian Mitchell said. "We had been hitting so well over the last month, but it just did not work out. I'll tell you what though, we gave ourselves a chance, which made it really fun in the end."

In the fifth and sixth innings, City High doubled its hit total and scored three runs, including RBIs from Carter Seaton and Talon Young. Cade Obermueller also scored on an errant Maroons' throw.

That narrowed the deficit to 5-4 as the teams headed to the seventh inning.

Unfortunately for the Little Hawks, their revived offense stalled in their final at-bat.

Dowling Catholic's Jake English sets the tone, on mound and at plate

Though playing in a state tournament is intimidating enough, the Maroons had it even tougher, considering they were playing City High in its back yard.

Starting pitcher Jake English made that a moot point.

English was too much for the Little Hawks, striking out six batters while allowing five hits and two earned runs in five innings.

English said his team stayed focused on the fundamentals.

"We knew going in that City High was going to be a tough opponent," English said. "We knew that they could hit the crap out of the ball. But we just had to focus on throwing strikes and letting the defense work. When we did that, everything came into place."

English also shined at the plate, going 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The impact of this year's Little Hawks' senior class will go down in history

With the upcoming departures of 12 seniors, including stars like Gable Mitchell and Obermueller, City High fans would be remiss if they did not cherish the talent that the team had, even considering the painful way that the season ended.

Making the group's time together even more bittersweet is the fact that many of them have been playing together since they were children.

Even though the team did not reach its ultimate goal of winning a state title, Carter Seaton said that he hopes that he and his fellow seniors have left their marks on the program.

"We hope that this is just the start of dominance within our program," Seaton said. "Us seniors wanted to come in and leave this place much better than we found it, and I think that we did."

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City High baseball loses to Dowling Catholic in state semis