Underwood to Play For 2A Championship, Beat Cascade, 3-1

Underwood Coach Andy Vanfossan (7-20-23)

Underwood's Mason Boothby (7-20-23)

Underwood's Jack Vanfossan (7-20-23)

Underwood to Play For 2A Championship, Beat Casacade, 3-1 –

(7-21-23) – The formula continues to work for the Eagles. One more time… and it means a State Championship.

Jack Vanfossan gave up just 5 hits and one run in 7 innings of work to help Underwood earn a hard-fought 3-1 over Cascade in the Class 2A State Semifinals and send them to their first-ever championship game in baseball.

Vanfossan saw the way the strikezone was being called early and looked to take advantage.

“When I can (work the zone) and put some weak groundballs out there and have our defense make plays, the scoreboard shows that.”

The Eagles Mason Boothby got the scoring started, leading off the game with a single and eventually coming around to score as Garrett Luett reached on a throwing error in the 1st. Boothby was 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored talked about the importance of scoring early in such an important game.

“It’s big. You gotta put the pressure on the other team, especially in a game like this when there’s already pressure.”

After Nathan Schockemoehl hit an RBI single in the top of the 5th to cut the Cougar’s deficit to 2-1, Gus Bashore came back with a 2-out, RBI single of his own to regain a 2-run edge that The Eagles wouldn’t relinquish.

Underwood Coach Andy Vanfossan says his players have found success at a variety of sports and a variety of levels help them build into a tight group of players and with the size of their school, to put together championship-caliber teams in so many sports is an incredible accomplishement.

“Good athletic programs keep the ball rolling, so to speak, and I think that’s something is very satisfying knowing that our size team and our size district is able to do something like that.”

Underwood will take on Beckman Catholic in the Class 2A State Championship Game at Merchants Park in Carroll on Friday at 2:30pm. (KNOD 105.3)

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats