DAYTON, Ohio — Byron Buxton knows Tuesday night’s appearance in the Midwest League All-Star Game at Fifth Third Field in Dayton could have been his last with Cedar Rapids. There is chance he will be promoted to high-Class A Fort Myers this week, but as he sat by his locker enjoying a postgame meal late, he [...]

IHSBCA Week 4 Rankings CLASS 4A 1. Ankeny, 2. Iowa City West, 3. West Des Moines Valley, 4. West Des Moines Dowling, 5. Fort Dodge, 6. Des Moines East, 7. Urbandale, 8. Johnston, 9. Cedar Rapids Xavier, 10. Muscatine. CLASS 3A 1. Clear Lake, 2. Davenport Assumption, 3. Glenwood, 4. Sioux City Heelan, 5. LeMars, 6. Benton Community, 7. [...]

“A bus carrying a Minnesota Twins minor league team was involved in a fatal crash near Jacksonville, Fla., early Tuesday morning. No Twins players or staff members were injured in the crash, which involved the organization’s rookie-level affiliate based in Elizabethton, Tenn. However, the driver of a second vehicle involved in the accident died after [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – Read into this any way you’d like. The Cedar Rapids Kernels  will announce the addition of outfielder Max Kepler to their active roster for the beginning of the Midwest League ‘s second half Thursday night. Does Kepler’s presence mean the permanent absence of outfielder Byron Buxton ? We’ll find out. Kepler, 20, is considered one of the top 10 prospects in the Minnesota [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – This was the rottenest of rotten timing. After every Sunday home game this season, fans can come onto the field at Veterans Memorial Stadium and get autographs of their favorite Cedar Rapids Kernels players. But when you blow a four-run lead in the ninth inning for the second time in four days, [...]

Center fielder Byron Buxton played his 64th and perhaps last game as a Cedar Rapids Kernel  on Sunday. With so much being written and said about the Minnesota Twins prospect and how his game compares to former Kernels center fielder Mike Trout, we decided to do a stat-by-stat comparison of the two. Trout, the Los Angeles Angels all-star, played the end of [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – Backing into a championship is better than not winning one at all. That’s what it’s been reduced to. The Cedar Rapids Kernels had a ton of opportunities this week to cinch the Midwest League’s Western Division first-half title, yet found themselves needing to have help to do so after a 8-3 loss Saturday night to Peoria before 4,373 fans at Veterans [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – Gary Lucas is the only one, the exception. And even he is realistic about what needed to be done. The Minnesota Twins love being in Cedar Rapids and associated with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. It’s been a wonderful honeymoon this season. The Twins get a better city to place their low-Class A [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – In case you are wondering, yes, the Cedar Rapids Kernels care about finishing off this first half with a division championship. “A lot,” confirmed Kernels first baseman D.J. Hicks after another tough-to-take loss last night, 6-2, in 10 innings to Peoria before 4,580 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “More than a lot of [...]

The Iowa High School Athletic Association released district and substate groupings for Class 1A and Class 2A baseball Friday afternoon.

Here they are, beginning with 1A:

DAVENPORT – A most improbable comeback was trumped by an even more improbable comeback Thursday night. Quad Cities scored five runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to stun the Cedar Rapids Kernels, 9-8, at Modern Woodmen Park. The rally was helped by a fielding error on Kernels shortstop Jorge Polanco [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders are reeling from news that former player Scott Winkler has died unexpectedly. Winkler, 23, was found unresponsive at his family’s home in Asker, Norway, by his mother Wednesday evening after she returned home from work. A cause of death has not been determined. “It’s a shame,” said RoughRiders head coach/general [...]

LISBON – Matt Haddy is leaving Lisbon after six years to take the head boys’ basketball coaching job at Independence, he said Wednesday. Haddy led Lisbon to its first state tournament in 2012 and also was an assistant coach for the Lions as they won the 2011 Class A state football championship. “I was at [...]

MVC Softball Standings
These are provided by the Mississippi Valley Conference and are through June 16th:

DAVENPORT – All of a sudden, the Cedar Rapids Kernels have company atop the Midwest League’s Western Division. Quad Cities rallied for five runs in its final two at-bats to beat the Kernels, 8-4, Tuesday night at Modern Woodmen Park. The loss dropped Cedar Rapids (39-24) into a first-place tie with red-hot Beloit, which beat Wisconsin [...]

DES MOINES – There were reasons Cedar Rapids Xavier’s girls’ soccer team lost just one match this season (in penalty kicks) and rolled to an eighth consecutive state championship. Among them was simply having good players. Three Saints have been named first-team all-state in Class 2A by the Iowa High School Soccer Coaches Association. They are seniors [...]

MARION – Cole Gross should be a coach someday. No one works harder and has more of a passion for the great game of baseball. He’s always on time for practices, cares deeply about his teammates and how they are doing on the field and off. There’s not a member of the Linn-Mar team that knows baseball players [...]

These are selected by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association. Your top-ranked clubs this week are Ankeny (Class 4A), Sioux City Heelan (3A), Dyersville Beckman (2A) and Mason City Newman (1A).

Here are all of the rankings:

These are selected by conference coaches. Kayla Armstrong of Class 2A state champion Cedar Rapids Xavier was selected the MVC Valley Division player of the year, Tory Harman of Cedar Rapids Kennedy the Mississippi Division player of the year. Iowa City High’s coaching staff was selected Coaching Staff of the Year in the Valley Division, [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS – Much of the Twin Cities found out Monday afternoon what anyone who has been out to Veterans Memorial Stadium this season already knew. This Byron Buxton kid? He’s not bad. The uber-prospect wowed 3,359 fans in person and those who tuned in to the Minnesota Twins television flagship station with an amazing individual performance that [...]