Greene County head baseball coach Mark Sawhill is familiar with three of the four Class 2A teams still standing at the State Tournament in Des Moines at Principal Park. The Rams lost to Hawkeye 10 Conference member Kuemper Catholic (Carroll) 8-4 at the Kuemper Tournament in late June. The Rams split two games with Heart of Iowa Activities Conference member Roland-Story (Story City) and lost twice to HOIAC champion North Polk (Alleman). Top ranked Dyersville Beckman faces R-S at 6 tonight in the first semifinal in 2A while NP and Kuemper meet in tonight’s 8 p.m. contest.

Coach Sawhill said of the Comets, “Dave Middleton does a great job with that program. His teams have been to several state tournaments and have won it before. You like playing his team because you know you’re facing a team that does things right.” On Kuemper, Coach Sawhill said, “That’s another program that is always tough. This is their third trip in a row to the state semifinals. We were fortunate enough to beat them 1-0 in 2012 and even though we lost 8-4 this year, it was a game that we had our chances in and thought we showed well against a qualify program.” The Greene County coach comments about R-S. “Chris Hill has done a great job getting that program the way he wanted it. He’s played a number of young kids and they’ve responded. I’m impressed with what he’s been able to accomplish.”

Tonight’s winners meet at 2 p.m. Saturday for the 2A State Championship.