Grundy Center baseball was resilient in another relentless week of competition on the baseball field to win two out of their four games last week.
The Spartans, who entered the week ranked eighth in Class 2A by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association, dropped their first game of the year in a tight nine-inning loss to Dike-New Hartford, 3-2, on June 9 in Grundy Center, then pounded out a 14-4 win in five innings the next night against Aplington-Parkersburg.
Union Community won against the Spartans on June 11, but Grundy locked back in for NICL West play against AGWSR on Thursday, winning 6-0 to remain undefeated in the division at 5-0 and improving to 10-2 overall.
“I was really proud of how they responded this week,” Grundy Center head coach Pat Brown II said. “I thought we finished the week really good, and we didn’t play bad against Dike, we saw some of the best pitching we’ll see all year against them and lost a 3-2 ballgame.”
In conference play against the Cougars, the Spartans mustered just three hits but found ways to get on base via eight walks and four batters hit by AGWSR pitching.
Judd Jirovsky, Ryker Thoren, Hayden Geerdes, Ethan Meester and Mason Thede all chipped in one run batted in a piece, with Brody Zinkula scoring twice, including on a heads-up play where Thoren was caught in a rundown between first and second, only for Zinkula to sneak in the back door running in from second to beat the throw home in the fifth inning.
“There’s a lot of baseball IQ out there,” Brown II said. “And the biggest thing is that we’ve got guys that are absolutely having a blast playing. Winning is fun, but they’re having fun doing it, not being arrogant or cocky but just playing the game.
“These guys are pounding right now. And they’ve got weightlifting, football, basketball, and they’ve got a social life too and for them to put on a happy face and come out and play baseball, just to wake up and do it all over again, says a lot about these kids, their work ethic and their passion for the sport.”
Jirovsky put forth another solid complete game against conference foes with eight strikeouts and only one walk in seven shutout innings, scattering a total of four hits. His last complete game before that was a two-hit, 15 strikeout performance in a 9-0 Spartan win against East Marshall.
“The team’s relying on me a bit right now with Ryker being down a little bit but starting to come back,” Jirovsky said. “I don’t mind that, because we’ve got plenty of guys that can step up on the mound when we need them to, and I know that whenever I’m up there, I’ve got great infield, outfield, and Pete [Lebo] behind the plate all behind me, so I can just step up there and throw strikes.”
Grundy Center travels to East Marshall for two games on Monday, then gets a rare mid-week day off before heading to Waterloo Columbus on Wednesday, at South Hardin on Thursday, and returning home against a 10-plus win Wapsie Valley team on Friday, June 20.
JAKE RYDER SPORTS 