Kirkwood Baseball

Kramer's dramatic slam saves No. 4 Eagles

Ross Kramer will remember what happened on Saturday for the rest of his life. And he'll be smiling about it.

His special day began about 9 a.m. when Purdue baseball coach Mark Wasikowski called to see if Kramer wanted to play for the Boilermakers in the Big Ten next year.

The answer was a resounding yes, thank-you very much.

Kramer's day ended when he belted a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to give Kirkwood a walk-off 9-7 victory over Iowa Lakes in the second game of their ICCAC doubleheader at Kirkwood.

The fourth-ranked Eagles scored 13 runs in the first inning of the first game and cruised to a 17-0 victory in five innings.

Kramer hit .363 with five homers for Kirkwood last season, but his batting average was languishing at the .200 level when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the Eagles trailing 7-5 and the bases loaded with one out.

It was a fastball and Kramer walloped it over the wall in right-center field.

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Lee accepts offer to pitch for Iowa

University of Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller was watching Monday when Hunter Lee pitched for the Kirkwood Eagles.

Lee got off to a good start when he struck out two batters in the first inning on a chilly day. Then he struck out the side in the second inning, giving him five K's in two frames.

Heller and Iowa pitching coach Desi Druschel were impressed.

Lee struck out two more batters in the third inning, fanned two more in the fourth and struck out the lead-off batter in the fifth inning, giving him 10 K's in 4 1/3 innings.

Things went downhill for Lee after that, but he got the victory and had shown Heller more than enough. Lee took an official visit to Iowa on Tuesday and accepted an offer to pitch for the Hawks next season.

"I'm feeling really good," he said Thursday after practice at Kirkwood. "I'm an Iowa kid through and through.

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Jackson helps No. 7 Eagles sweep IC

Taylor Jackson and Giancarlo Stanton have something in common now as  baseball sluggers.

That's very good news for the Kirkwood Eagles.

Jackson belted two home runs Friday in his first game for the Eagles  at Kirkwood field, including a walk-off shot in the bottom of the  seventh inning to give the seventh-ranked Eagles a 6-5 victory over  Iowa Central in the opener of their conference doubleheader.

Kirkwood won the second game, 8-1, to sweep the ICCAC twinbill and put  the Eagles all alone in first place.

Jackson's performance came a day after Stanton crushed two homers in  his first game for the New York Yankees in a victory over Toronto,  although the resemblance ends there.

Stanton is a big man who led the Major Leagues with 59 home runs last  season, so his round-trippers are not a great surprise. Jackson, by  contrast, is 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, but it's pure muscle.

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Hanna slugs 3 homers as Eagles sweep

OMAHA, Neb. - The Kirkwood baseball team went the extra mile on Sunday to sweep a conference doubleheader from DMACC.

Actually, the Eagles went an extra 170 miles.

Kirkwood was supposed to play the doubleheader on DMACC's campus in Boone, but the games were moved to Millard North High School in Omaha, Neb., due to unfavorable field conditions in Boone.

The 12th-ranked Eagles took the switch in stride and swept the Bears, 10-8 and 5-1, in the ICCAC conference opener for both teams with the temperature in the mid-30's.

Ellison Hanna socked three home runs in the doubleheader for Kirkwood, which raised its records to 18-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference with its ninth straight victory.

Hanna belted two homers and drove in four runs in the 10-8 triumph in the first game. Izaya Fullard was 2-for-2 and drove in two runs and Kal Youngquist hit a solo homer.

Cameron Cowan (2-0) picked up the victory with three innings in relief.

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