I was at the Ankeny-Fort Dodge game watching McKinney pitch and he was fantastic, but so was the Fort Dodge pitcher. As a spectator, I did see the strike zone was huge, but consistent. As a scout, I saw two pitchers hitting their spots, and throwing their off speed for strikes, keeping the hitters off-balance. Each team had solid defense and they played the game right. Except for a little contact issue, but I am not going to elaborate on that. Overall, this game was a state championship like game. Congratulations to Ankeny on making it to the state tournament and congratulations to Fort Dodge for a great season.
As for Fort Dodge's sub-state draw, I find it hard to believe that "the state officials" would not give these two schools a chance to meet in the state tournament for a re-match - they should have been at the substate final game. Should we expect this year's state champion and state runner-up to be in the same substate next year???? If the goal is getting the best 8 teams to the state tournament, why were some substate very easy and some substate were very hard.
The state officials wanted to see the state's highest high school draft pick: Derek Burkamper in the state tournament. So substate #5 was set up for him to get to Des Moines. Even though they did get upset, the road did not have many challenges. Same with substate #1....Sioux City East had the Gatorade Player of the Year: Dom Thompson-Williams, even though I like East, their substate had all conference opponents, and no real challenge.
Substates #2 (Ankeny, Fort Dodge, Waukee, Ames), Substate #7 (DM East, WDM Valley, Urbandale), and Substate 8 (WDM Dowling, Southeast Polk, Johnston) were the hardest substates.
