The Aplington-Parkersburg and Grundy Center baseball teams will meet in a 2A district semifinal Tuesday in State Center. The game will air on 99 The Wave with coverage beginning at 4:40 p.m.
The #3-seed Spartans (15-6) enter off a 7-1 home win over Union in Saturday’s quarterfinal, where a steady offense produced runs in all but two innings. Judd Jirovsky had four hits, and Colin Gordon had a solo home run in his second appearance of the season. Head Coach Pat Brown Jr. looks forward to a matchup of teams with similarities.
“A lot of similarities between us and AP,” Brown says. “We don’t have a lot of real baseball players, we’ve just got a lot of good athletes doing a lot of things. And the same can be said about them. They’re just a real competitive bunch. We were able to save Brayden to get him out there. Without Tate Jirovsky being able to go, it’s gonna be a challenge for us. But the guys have stepped up to the challenge. We’ve wonsome games without Tate. It’s gonna be hard to do. But, in a one-game series, we can beat just about anybody.”
The #2-seed Falcons (15-7) will begin their postseason, having earned a first round bye. They won three straight to end the regular season, including a 9-1 win over Gladbrook-Reinbeck. Head Coach Brett Kleespies.
“Unfortunately, they’ve had a couple injuries with them that sidelined two of their good players, but again, not a pushover team by any means” Kleespies says. “They’re going to be ready to play. We went down and watched them Saturday night and they’ll run and they do the small things correctly. And a little short game that they played the other night against Union to kind of get them going. We know they’re probably going to run the bases. I think they’ve got 110 stolen bases on the year. Again, a good group of athletes that Coach Brown has at Grundy.”
It’ll be the first meeting between the teams this season due to the cancellation of the regular season game.
It’ll be the fifth postseason meeting between the teams, and the first since 2006. The game will start at 5:00 p.m. The winner will advance to Saturday’s district final against either #1 (2A) West Marshall or Hudson, who will meet in the second game of the doubleheader.
Pat Brown interview:
Brett Kleespies interview:
