Assumption baseball romps to semis

By the Quad-City Times staff | Sunday, July 20, 2008

DES MOINES — No coach ever goes into a state quarterfinal game expecting his team to hammer the other team so mercilessly that it wins by the 10-run rule.

But Assumption baseball coach Billy Argo said he knew his team was fully capable of doing exactly what it did Friday.

The No. 1-ranked Knights exploded for 11 runs in the second inning and cruised to an easy 14-0 victory over Pleasantville in the opening round of the Class 2A state tournament at Principal Park.

Assumption (33-8) will take on St. Ansgar (29-8) in the state semifinals Thursday at noon.

“You never expect to do something like this,’’ Argo said. “Crazy things can happen. You can hit the ball right at people and they make the plays. I didn’t expect it, but I certainly thought we were capable of this.

“We kind of jumped on them early and were able to get a lot of kids into the game and get them out on that field,” he added. “I think almost all of our position players either played in the field or batted, or both.”

The Knights scored one run in the first inning when Andrew Dobek walked, stole second and scored on a single by Jake McAllister. Then the Knights simply dismantled the overmatched Trojans in the second.

Argo’s son, Willie, had a three-run triple in the inning that upped the score to 7-0. It was his ninth three-base hit of the season, tying a school record.

Left-fielder Jared McIntosh then really blasted the game open with a three-run home run. Billy Argo said he thought McIntosh’s line drive to right-field actually cleared the fence and clanked off a railing back onto the field, but the umpires ruled the ball did not go out of the park.

“They didn’t call it, but he circled the bases anyway so it didn’t matter,’’ Argo said.

It was McIntosh’s second hit of the inning and it made the score 11-0. Starting pitcher Adam Gacke took it from there, limiting Pleasantville to just two singles in five innings.

“He was solid,’’ Argo said of Gacke. “He was around the zone and we made the plays behind him. It was a good all-around start.”