Pleasant Valley rallys back for a chance at their first ever state baseball championship Saturday – (1) Pleasant Valley: 4 (5) Prairie: 3
IOWA CITY, Iowa (BVM) — After a quick deficit in the IHSAA Class 4A State Semifinal game against Prairie High School tonight, Pleasant Valley never gave in.
Throughout their historic season, Pleasant Valley has been propelled by incredible pitching and defense, ranking first in class 4A in fielding percentage, third in team ERA, second in total strikeouts.
After being led by the arm and bat of Alex Clemons, Pleasant Valley moves on to their first ever baseball state championship.
Prairie Cedar Rapids was able to attack Clemons early in the game, getting two runs on the board in the third inning by Ellsworth commit Colton Forslund who hit an RBI double to take a 2-0 lead. Then in the top of the fifth inning the Hawks added another run.
The Prairie pitcher Ryan Barnes was able to keep that lead going for much of the game, not allowing a hit through four innings.
Though the momentum was heavily in the favor of Prairie, a two-run home run by Carsen Albrecht shifted the pendulum towards top-seeded Pleasant Valley.
Prairie was able to keep making contact on Clemons, as his pitch count reached 115 and was pulled after 5 ⅔ innings.
The fans of the Spartans began to get louder after Barnes was pulled and as University of Minnesota commit Seth Clausen nailed an RBI double to tie the game up at 3-3.
The relief pitching came up huge for Pleasant Valley, as both Alex Melvin and Matthew Meyer threw for a combined shutout through the last 1 ⅓ innings.
After a tough day on the mound, Clemons was able to pull through in the bottom of the seventh to hit a game-winning single with the bases loaded to propel Pleasant Valley to their first ever championship appearance in school history.
Pleasant Valley now moves their record to 2-5 all-time in the Iowa High School championship series, aiming for an opportunity to win their first ever state title. They face off against Johnston tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.CST in the championship game.
