New London holds on in Iowa Class 1A baseball final, wins school's first state title

By Barry Poe | Photo by Eric Niceswanger  

CARROLL – It came down to a pressure-packed situation in the bottom of the seventh inning, but New London survived to claim the Iowa Class 1A state baseball championship at Merchants Park on Friday. 

The third-ranked Tigers held off top-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s 8-7, ending the contest by turning a double play with the bases loaded.

Not only did New London (31-1) win the school’s first baseball title, but it also prevented St. Mary’s from completing a perfect season. The Hawks finished with a 35-1 mark.

“Hats off to them, they have some unbelievable hitters on that team,” New London head coach Brad Helmerson said. “They made it extremely close at the end. But our guys are so disciplined at what they do and just keep playing the game. They didn’t get flustered there, they just made the play they had to make.”

New London took an 8-4 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring all of its runs in the first four frames.

St. Mary’s came up with three runs in the sixth – the first runs allowed all season by reliever Kooper Schulte – trimming the deficit to 8-7.

Then, after Cael Ortmann finished off his third scoreless inning in relief, the Hawks loaded the sacks in the seventh.

Schulte issued a one-out walk to Jaxon Bunkers before Ortmann hit a grounder to the left side of New London shortstop and starting pitcher Dereck Santiago. Santiago made a fine play to get to the ball, but his throw was off the mark, allowing Bunkers to speed to third and Ortmann to second. The play was ruled a hit and an error.

Hunter Peck was issued an intentional walk to load the bases. With Alex Schroeder at the plate, St. Mary’s head coach Dean Harpenau elected to try for a game-tying squeeze but, but the bunt attempt was fouled off.

Schroeder then hit a ground ball back to pitcher Schulte, who threw home for the force out. Catcher Tucker Gibbar fired to first to complete the game-ending double play.

“It’s surreal right now,” Gibbar said. “I knew we were going to come here and dominate, but it hasn’t sat with me just yet. It feels like we have another game to play.

“I love these games more than the 15-0 blowouts; these are the games I live for and the whole team lives for. It’s crazy. It was a great game.”

St. Mary’s pitcher Carter Schorg had an uncharacteristic shaky outing but got out the first inning unscathed when the Hawks executed a double play on a strikeout and caught stealing.

Schorg started the bottom of the first with his third leadoff triple of the tournament and scored the game’s first run on a double by Bunkers. Ortmann followed with another RBI double and eventually made it 3-0, scoring on a wild pitch.

New London’s Gibbar – one of eight seniors on the roster – hit a solo homer to lead off the second. Carter Allen and Ryan Richey drew back-to-back walks and Brenden Richey’s sacrifice fly drew the Tigers within 3-2.

St. Mary’s added another run in the second when Isaiah Gerrietts led off with a double and scored on a ground out.

Two errors in the top of the third allowed New London to draw even at 4-4. The Tigers opened up some breathing room with a four-run third, which included RBI singles by Allen and Brenden Richey.

Schulte replaced Sanitago on the mound in the bottom of the sixth. Santiago picked up the win, improving his record to 11-0.

Pick hit a one-out double for St. Mary’s in the sixth and scored on a throwing error by the shortstop. Pinch-hitter Austin Klein smoked an RBI double to right-center, pulling the Hawks within 8-7.

“We were ready offensively, but I think for some of our freshmen it was a big stage,” St. Mary’s Coach Dean Harpenau said. “We made a few mistakes and New London is a pretty stout team. They were here last year and have a lot of seniors. When you make a few mistakes against quality teams, they’re going to take advantage of it.

“But Cael did stop the bleeding and we didn’t give up. That’s a plus for next year, we’ve got eight of nine coming back. Even though we’re one of the smallest schools in the state, these guys know the game and you saw how bad that hurt some of them.”

New London lost to Lansing Kee in a quarterfinal here last season, its only other state tournament appearance since 2006.

“What our guys do is take good at-bats and see a lot of pitches.” Helmerson said. “They’re relentless and that gets a lot of good pitchers out earlier sometimes. Hats off to their guy, he came in there and shut us down. They just keep fighting and find a way to win.

“We didn’t like the way we went out here last year. Our guys worked so hard in the off-season and all the way through this season. They had one goal in mind and just kept taking steps.”

New London, by the way, also captured a state track championship in the spring.

Had St. Mary’s won, it would have become just the 12th team in state history to go through an entire season unbeaten.

St. Mary’s, though, went unbeaten during the regular season in football, basketball and baseball.

New London’s only loss of the season came to Anamosa on July 1.