ANAMOSA — It’s been said that in the sport of baseball, pitchers start the season with the early advantage over the hitters and as the summer warms up, so do the bats.

Well, in the case of the 2007 Anamosa baseball team, the Raiders haven’t needed warm weather to get their bats jump-started after a solid first week of the summer saw an offensive explosion in a trio of Anamosa triumphs.

“It’s been a nice and surprising start with the way the offense has produced already this season,” said Raider baseball coach Byron Schlotterback after his team opened their 2007 campaign at Bellevue-Marquette Monday, May 21, scoring a total of 19 runs in the doubleheader split. “I thought we came into the Marquette game ready to play and usually scoring nine runs gets the job done, just not in the first game however.”

Anamosa was edged in a 10-9 final against the Mohawks as the hosts tallied all 10 runs in a three-inning span.

ANAMOSA— Gearing for a playoff run, the Anamosa girls soccer team hosted a talented Cedar Rapids Prairie team Friday, May 25, in the regular season finale for four talented Raider seniors in Allison Walshire, Bryn Gerber, Katie VonMuenster and Brittney May.

“We played well in the first half but the second half was under the control of Cedar Rapids Prairie,” said Anamosa girls soccer coach Jim Conklin after his team was handed a 7-1 setback at the hands of the Hawks.
“Prairie’s coach pulled their starters in the second half and that allowed us to play our entire roster.”

Anamosa (0-10) hung tough through the game’s first 45-minutes of play trailing the Hawks just 2-0 at the half.

“This was a great game to watch,” said Conklin. “There was a lot of back and forward action. At the half Prairie has just two more shots than we did.”

The Raiders were aggressive against the Cedar Rapids Prairie defense through the entire first half as May, Gerber and Jackie Engelbart all fired in shots at the Hawk goal.

“The girls gave it all they had and gave the home fans something to shout about in the first half,” said Conklin.

“Brittney, Bryn and Jackie all did a nice job of giving us chances to score against a pretty good Prairie team. We had some nice looks at their goal but just didn’t have enough high quality shots to make it all the way through and past their goalie.”

The Hawks scored two quick goals to start the second half and led 4-0 before Prairie coach Larry Reutzel pulled his starters.

The Hawks added three more goals in the last 20 minutes of the contest before Gerber scored the lone tally for the hosts blasting a goal for the Raiders in the game’s 89th-minute.

“Bryn came from the right side of the Prairie box to the far side corner of their goal to score,” said Conklin.

WYOMING — There’s no doubting the fact that Midland baseball has been one of the crown jewels of the Eagle boys’ sports programs over the last decade.

Frank Fishler and Chris Hedden have guided the Eagle baseball team to unprecedented heights. Now former Eagle baseball star Josh Soper takes over the reins of the program looking to keep the strong Midland baseball tradition rolling.

That start for Soper and the 2007 Eagles was in Wyoming Tuesday, May 22, where Midland was handed an 18-8 defeat at the hands of a talented North Linn squad.

“Not to take any credit away from North Linn, because they did an excellent job of putting the ball in play, but we played horrible defense,” said Soper after the 10-run, six-inning setback. “After three innings we were feeling good up 5-3. But in the fourth inning we gave up five runs, all unearned and all with two outs.”

The explosion gave the Lynx an 8-5 lead before a huge six-run sixth inning sealed the Eagles’ fate in the 10-run loss.

“We never recovered after that fourth inning,” said Soper.