Baseball Playoffs Tuesday, July 12th
Kuemper Vs Clarinda At Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson- Class 2A Sub-State 8
Kuemper 6
Clarinda 2
Kuemper clinched their first trip to the State Baseball tournament since 2017 with a come from behind win. The Knights started slowly, falling behind 2-0 in the 1st inning, but a double play to end the 2nd inning with the bases loaded gave the Knights the momentum and they never looked back. Kuemper out hit the Cardinals 10-6, holding them to 2 hits over the final 2 innings. The Knights played well on defense, making a couple errors in the 2nd inning but turning two double plays in the game. The Cardinals didn’t get a runner past 2nd base after the 1st inning. Kuemper had 6 different players have a hit in the game, with three players having multiple hits.
Clarinda came out swinging, loading the bases with three singles in the 1st inning with 2 outs. James McCall was able to squeeze the ball past Logan Sibenaller on the mound for a seeing eye single, scoring a pair of runs to put the Cardinals up 2-0. They used a pair of Kuemper errors in the 2nd inning to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Sibenaller struck out Tadyn Brown for the 2nd out and Max Irlmeier fired the ball to John Base at 1st base to tag out the runner for a double play. Kuemper hit the ball hard in the first two innings but hadn’t found the gaps. That changed in the 3rd inning. Carter Putney led off the top 3rd with a deep fly out to right field. Benicio Lujano doubled, then stole 3rd base, an errant throw to 3rd, allowed him to score and the Knights were on the board, down 2-1. Cal Wanninger singled, Cooper Pottebaum walked and John Boes tied the game with an RBI single, scoring Wanninger. Clarinda went down in order in the bottom of the 3rd and Kuemper kept the momentum with Logan Sibenaller singling to lead off the 4th. Cal Wanninger crushed a home run to left field on a 1-1 pitch and Kuemper took the lead for good. They stretched the lead in the 5th as Clarinda defense struggled. John Boes reached on an error, Trevor Rial bunted him to 2nd base, he moved to 3rd base on a passed ball. Max Irlmeier put down a great bunt allowing Boes to score from 3rd and Irlmeier reached base. Tristan Janson came in to run for him, scoring on a error off the bat of Sibenaller, putting Kuemper up 6-2. Clarinda got a leadoff walk in the 6th inning, the only walk allowed by Logan Sibenaller but he induced a pair of fly outs and a ground ball out to Benicio Lujano at 3rd to end the inning. Sibenaller dominated on the hill late, in the 7th inning Clarinda went down in order with Trevor Rial making a nice scoop and throw for the final out.
Cal Wanninger, Benicio Lujano and Max Irlmeier all had 2 hits with Wanninger hitting the 2-run home run. He finished with 2-runs batted in and scored twice. Lujano doubled, and scored the first Knight run. Irlmeier added an RBI. Logan Sibenaller got the win, going all 7 innings, allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs with 6 strikeouts.
The Knights head to the State tournament and will play in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. The brackets will be released after the coaches have their seeding meeting. Kuemper is 20-16 on the season.
Kuemper Stats
Logan Sibenaller 1-5, RS, SB- Pitching WP, 7 IP, 6 Hits, 2 RA, 2 ER, 6 K’s, BB
Benicio Lujano 2-4, 2B, RS
Cal Wanninger 2-3, 2-Run HR, 2 RBI, 2 RS, BB
John Boes 1-3, RBI, RS, HBP
Trevor Rial 1-4
Max Irlmeier 2-3, RBI, HBP
Nate Heinrichs 1-1
Tristan Janson 1 RS, SB
Cooper Pottebaum 1 BB
Box Score
Teams 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Final
Kuemper 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 6
Clarinda 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
