REMSEN, Iowa | When Remsen St. Mary’s co-head baseball coach Dean Harpenau arrived home following Tuesday night’s 7-3 Class 1A substate finals win over Le Mars Gehlen, he discovered the list of 1A state tournament qualifiers.
State tournament pairings hadn't been released at that time. They came out Wednesday morning and Harpenau, who shares co-head coaching duties with Jim Wesselmann, found out the fourth-ranked Hawks would face No. 3 North Linn in the first round for the second straight year.
“This could be one of the best 1A fields ever,” he said.
He’s not kidding.
Each of the top four teams in the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association final state ratings are in the field, headed by top-ranked Mason City Newman (37-1), the defending 1A state champion. Newman is the tournament’s top seed and will open the tournament Friday at Principal Park in Des Moines facing No. 9 Tri-Center (21-2) at 11 a.m.
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Second-ranked Lisbon (34-0), the state’s lone remaining undefeated squad, is in the field. Respectively, North Linn (40-3) and Remsen St. Mary's (27-3) are seeded third and sixth, heading into Saturday's 1:30 p.m. first-round matchup.
Sixth-ranked Martensdale-St. Marys (36-6) received the tournament’s fourth seed and will face No. 7 Council Bluffs St. Albert (31-9), the fifth seed.
The only non-ranked team in the field is Gilbertville Don Bosco (25-8), which will face second-seeded Lisbon at 11 a.m. Saturday. Back at state after a year’s absence, the Dons were 4-2 winners over No. 5 Alburnett Tuesday night in the Substate 3 title game at Cedar Falls.
“The state tournament is about who matches up against each other,” said Harpenau, who along with co-head coach Jim Wesselmann, helped Remsen St. Mary’s win the 2016 Class 1A state title, 8-5 in the finals over War Eagle Conference rival West Sioux.
“It’s one of the toughest tournaments in 1A I have ever seen. A lot of it depends upon how well we play. Will we see a No. 1 (pitcher) or a No. 2? We’re strong with Blaine (Harpenau) on the mound and we’re strong with Derrick (Schorg). We have to be creative and not make any mistakes. We’ll have to put the ball in play and score enough runs to get by in the first round.”
Here’s another reason why it’s one of the toughest 1A state tournament fields that Harpenau (a pitcher for the Remsen St. Mary’s teams that won consecutive Class 2A state titles from 1983 to 1985) has ever seen. Seven of the squads have won at least one state championship.
Mason City Newman tops the field with six titles, all in 1A. Remsen St. Mary’s and Martensdale-St. Marys have each claimed four. Council Bluffs St. Albert has three titles, two in 2A and another in 3A. Tri-Center, Lisbon and Don Bosco each have one.
A further look at the Remsen St. Mary's/North Linn matchup will be in Friday's Journal.