Sports : Rippel signs with Mount Mercy baseball team

Tyler Rippel with coaches Dahm and Struve, parents Jeff and Hayley and younger brother, Chase.

Tyler Rippel signed his baseball letter of intent Wednesday, with MMU coach Dahm & VS Coach Struve.

Vinton-Shellsburg senior pitcher Tyler Rippel signed his letter of intent to play baseball next season for Coach Jack Dahm and the Mount Mercy University Mustangs.

Dahm and Viking coach Jim Struve joined Rippel and his family for a signing ceremony Wednesday at VSHS.

Rippel pitched for the Vikings in last year's State Tournament, giving up just two earned runs to eventual State Champion Waverly-Shell Rock. The Go-Hawks dominated every other pitcher they faced in state, winning final two games by scores of 12-2 and 11-1. Rippel also pitched the seventh inning of the Sub-State game, earning the save which sent the Vikes to Des Moines for the first time since 2009.

Rippel was 5-5 last season, with an ERA of 3.19. As a sophomore, he started seven games and had an ERA of 2.17.

About Mount Mercy

Mount Mercy is a four-year Catholic institution in Cedar Rapids. In athletics, it is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, competes in the Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC). The MMU sports teams are known as the Mustangs.

Coach Jack Dahm was named head baseball coach at Mount Mercy in June 2014. He was the head coach at the University of Iowa from 2003-13, where he led the Hawkeyes to the Big Ten Tournament three times. They finished second in 2010, their highest finish in the tournament since 1982. Prior to his tenure at Iowa, Dahm was the head coach at Creighton University from 1993-2003. The Bluejays made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000 and Dahm was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2002.