The Heart of Iowa Activities Conference baseball all-conference selections won’t be released this week, which may not be good news for fans, but it certainly is for the league. All-Conference selections can’t be made public until all conference teams have completed their seasons, which will be on Saturday, August 2, for the HOIAC. The reason is top-ranked North Polk (Alleman) and number five Roland-Story (Story City) both advanced to the July 31 semifinals where they will meet each other. The Comets defeated MVAO (Mapleton) 7-1 on Monday in the quarterfinals to improve to 30-5 this season. R-S was a 4-1 winner vs. South Winneshiek (Calmar) on Monday, meaning the HOIAC will have a team in the finals for a fourth straight season since the Comets and Norsemen will play in Thursday’s first Class 2A semifinal. NP has been the State runner-up each of the past two seasons and Gilbert was the second place team in 2A in 2011.

Greene County stood tall during the conference season vs. the Norsemen and Comets. Coach Mark Sawhill’s team split two games vs. R-S, and the Rams lost twice to NP, both by three runs. Greene County was 11-5 overall and 8-9 in conference play, good for a tie for fifth place in the 10-team league.