Sports, Thursday, July 2nd

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Class 1 and 2A Postseason Brackets Released:

The Class 1 and 2A postseason is just ten days away and today the Iowa High School Athletic Association has released their playoff brackets in both Class 1 and 2A.

Area and regional teams in Class 1A are seeded in 1A-8.

  • Winfield-Mount Union will take on Columbus Community in a play-in game on July 9th at Winfield-Mount Union. The winner of that game will take on top seed Burlington Notre Dame on July 11th at 7:00 p.m.
  • New London will host Wapello at 7:00 p.m. on July 11th in a quarterfinal match-up.
  • Other teams in the region include Lone Tree, who will take on Hillcrest Academy — and Highland, who will battle second seed Lisbon at New London on July 11th at 4:30 p.m.

District Finals in Class 1A will be played on Saturday, July 18th; Substate Finals on July 21st.

In Class 2A, regional teams will compete in Class 2A-10.

  • Van Buren will take on West Burlington at 4:30 p.m. in a play-in bout at Burlington’s Community Field at 4:30 p.m. The winner of that game will get the top-seeded Hawks of Central Lee at 7:00 p.m. in Donnellson on July 14th.
  • Danville will play in the nightcap at Community Field on July 11th against the Falcons of Louisa-Muscatine — they’ll begin at 7:00 p.m. The winner of that fixture will then move on to play Mediapolis, who will play in Donnellson at 4:30 p.m. on July 14th.

The District Final will be played in Donnellson at Central Lee regardless if the Hawks are still playing or not. That game will be July 18th at 7:00 p.m.

KILJ-FM 105.5 will be your home for area playoff action all throughout July.

Soggy Night Rains Out Area Contests:

A rainy night in southeast Iowa meant that several games in the Southeast and Super Conferences were postponed.

Mount Pleasant-Marion seemed like they were going to play, but the game was banged just an hour before first pitch — and mere minutes before the Panthers were set to arrive at Marion High School.

In the Super Conference, baseball games at Burlington Notre Dame and Central Lee were called early yesterday afternoon.

One game that did play was New London-Danville, where New London picked up a 13-2 win at Danville.

New London, up 3-1 into the 7th, scored 10 runs in their final frame to pull away for win number eight on the season.

Tucker Gibbar had a monster night at the plate, going 5-for-5 with two runs batted in for the Tigers.

Carter Allen got the start on the bump for New London, throwing five innings of one run ball, while striking out four.

Kooper Schulte and Jaxon Allen each threw a scoreless innings out of the bullpen, as well.

On the softball circuit last night, just a couple of games, but #12 (1A) Winfield-Mount Union blanked #13 (3A) West Burlington 1-0, for their signature win of the season.

A night after tossing a complete game no-hitter, junior pitcher Madie Anderson threw a complete game shut-out, while striking out eight.

Makiah Lower had the lone rune batted in for Winfield-Mount Union, who improved to 6-2 on the season.

Super Conference Slate Busy Thursday:

Action in the Southeast Conference and Super Conference is busy again tonight, with several area and regional teams getting back on the diamond.

In the Super Conference it’s a loaded baseball slate:

  • Danville at Cardinal, 7:00 p.m.
  • Mediapolis at Pekin, 7:00 p.m.
  • Notre Dame at Van Buren County, 7:00 p.m.
  • New London at West Burlington, 7:00 p.m.

In Southeast Conference baseball, after falling from the ranks of the unbeaten in conference play, Mount Pleasant will have a mammoth two-game set tonight against first-place Fort Madison.

The Panthers split with the Bloodhounds to open their season, tonight they’ll lock horns at Fort Madison High School, with the twin-bill set to begin at 5:30 p.m.

In Super Conference softball tonight, both Winfield and New London are back in action.

  • #12 (1A) Winfield will travel to Lone Tree, 7:00
  • Cardinal at Danville, 7:00 p.m.
  • Holy Trinity at Highland, 7:00 p.m.
  • Wapello at Louisa-Muscatine, 7:00 p.m.
  • Pekin at Mediapolis, 7:00 p.m.
  • West Burlington/Notre Dame at New London, 7:00 p.m.

NFL Cuts Preseason in Half:

(via Associated Press) 

The NFL will cut its preseason in half and push back the start of exhibition play so teams have more time to train following a virtual offseason made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic, reports have announced.

Teams will now play exhibitions Aug. 20-24 and Aug. 27-31 during what were originally the second and third weeks of exhibition play, with all 32 teams playing one home and one road game.

Most of those games will remain the same as originally scheduled, although some match-ups in that second slate will have to be changed so every team gets a game at home.

The exhibition finales on Sept. 3 were also scrapped, giving teams more time to get ready for the regular season, which opens Sept. 10 with Houston at Kansas City.

There are no changes to the regular season schedule as of now.