Ames baseball takes down City High in Little Cy-Hawk matchup at Iowa state baseball tournament

In college sports, it is hard to find a bigger in-state feud than the one between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones.

Dubbed the 'Cy-Hawk' rivalry, the two schools have been battling for decades, making for some of the most exciting games in either program's history.

Even local high schools have gotten in on the fun as the Iowa City High and Ames football teams have competed for their own Little Cy-Hawk trophy, as recently as 2022.

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However, on Tuesday night it was all about baseball as the No. 2 Little Hawks took on the No. 7 Little Cyclones in the Class 4A state quarterfinals inside Duane Banks Baseball Stadium.

Coming into this game, the two teams were on very different levels of state tournament experience.

City High was making its third trip to the tournament since 2020, while Ames had not made it this far in the postseason since 1995.

However, that disparity did nothing to dismay Ames coach Nick Steenhagen and his team.

"We have a fantastic baseball support system in Ames," Steenhagen said. "We have had so many people reach out this past week excited that we were able to even qualify for the tournament. So, the fact that we have another opportunity is just icing on the cake."

That support proved paramount as the Cyclones pulled off the upset and earned the 9-7 quarterfinal win over their cross-state adversaries.

"For all of the seniors, I feel like we were carrying a little bit more on our backs," senior Aidan Nigh said. "I knew that I didn't want this to be my last high school game, so I had to play my hardest and have the rest of my team back me up."

The Little Hawks sent their fans into an uproar in the bottom of the first inning after an inside-the-park home run from senior DJ Hodges.

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After that, both defenses tightened the reigns until the top of the fourth inning when the Little Cyclones got on the board. Both of their runs in the inning came from Little Hawks errors but nonetheless gave them an important 2-1 lead.

Ames' lead grew in the fifth inning when with the bases loaded, two more runners were walked home.

Little Hawks coach Brian Mitchell said that it was the opposite of what he and his staff had been preaching all season.

"We didn't play well," Mitchell said. "It wasn't clean baseball like we had been playing and unfortunately, the timing wasn't good for us. I have to give them credit, they came in here ready to compete and we gave them additional confidence."

Once they returned to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, things started to go the Little Hawks' way.

After Hodges made his way to third base after hitting a single, a passed ball and balk, he was driven home by senior Drew Carlson on an RBI single.

Just as it seemed that the Little Hawks were getting some momentum going into the seventh inning down just two runs, Nigh quickly put a stop to that with a leadoff home run.

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"I thought that it was going to hook foul," Nigh said. "They gave me an inside pitch and that's the pitch I live for. So, I just got my hands extended and watched it go out of the park."

Nigh finished the game batting 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

Things did not get better for the Little Hawks, with Ames going on to score four more runs in the frame after an error and then a three-RBI double from senior Bobby Uthe.

Since they were unable to dig themselves out of the seven-run hole they ended their season with a 30-13 record.

As for the Little Cyclones, they're one step closer to their first state baseball title since 1961. Their tournament continues Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against No. 6 Cedar Falls in the state semifinals.

"Everyone on the team has worked extremely hard," Uthe said. "Everyone has that swagger because a lot of people didn't think we would do anything. But, we know that everyone on the team works extremely hard and wants to win."

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames tops City High in state baseball Little Cy-Hawk matchup