Johnston’s hopes for a 3rd-place finish in Class 4A state baseball remain alive after win over Waukee Northwest

Dragons beat Waukee Northwest 4-3 in quarterfinals and face Cedar Rapids Kennedy in semifinals on Thursday

CEDAR RAPIDS – These champions are still champing. Chomping? Championing?

Whatever you want to call it, the Johnston baseball team’s bid for a third consecutive Class 4A championship remains alive after the Dragons staged a late-night heroic victory over Waukee Northwest 4-3 in the state tournament quarterfinals Tuesday afternoon/evening at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Mason Tell’s walk-off two-run double to left field in the bottom of the seventh inning secured the Dragons’ survival. Again.

Johnston (34-5) had to throw 13 innings to beat Cedar Falls in a 4A substate final last week. And now this.

The Dragons and top-seeded Cedar Rapids Kennedy will play a semi-final on Thursday afternoon at 5:00 PM.

“We’re faced with adversity every day,” Johnston’s Will Nuss said. “I feel like we’ve learned to deal with it. Especially the last couple games. That thriller against Cedar Falls, and now this one. So I feel like we’re learning every day, no matter who we’re playing or what the situation is.”

Johnston defeated Northwest (26-16) three times in the regular season, but none of those games were as dramatic.

Tanner Jackson hit a two-run homer over the high pit in left field in the first inning to put the Wolves ahead. An RBI triple by Nuss in the third brought Johnston within a run.

Then the rain came, about as hard as it had Monday, causing a two-hour delay and knocking both starting pitchers out of the game. A Northwest error brought the tying run to Johnston in the fifth, but the Wolves took a 3-2 lead at the top of the seventh when Gus Ruggle led off with an infield single, went to third on a one-out Cayden Kitzman double and scored on Jonah Sweeney’s perfect squeeze bunt placed between home plate and the pitcher’s mound.

Nuss, however, led off the seventh inning with an infield single of his own, moving to third on Sam Kemmer’s one-out double to left. Sounds familiar, right?

But instead of a squeeze play, Tell hit a 1-0 pitcher over the left fielder’s head to win the game.

“When I hit him, I saw it go over his head and I was, like, in shock,” Tell said. “I don’t know if I remember it. Just a really fun moment.”

Due to rain, the 4A quarterfinal between Iowa City High and Waukee, originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night, was postponed until first pitch Wednesday at 2 p.m. West Des Moines Dowling and Dallas Center-Grimes played a late quarterfinal Tuesday night.

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