WAPELLO — Bringin’ the heat — sweatin’ it out.

Calvin Mathews left little doubt — and it was painfully clear for the Iowa City Regina Regals (23-13) — that the Davis County Mustang baseball team brings plenty of clout.

In what amounted to a statement game to the rest of Class 2A baseball, Mathews — arguably the best pitcher the state of Iowa has to offer — supplied the smoke.

His super-talented Mustang baseball team put out the fire on the hottest night of the year.

Fifth-ranked Davis County is back at the state tournament after an ultra-impressive 8-1 win over Iowa City Regina on Tuesday night in Wapello.

The Class 2A, Substate 4 matchup featured Mathews – a sure-fire draft pick next summer. The junior mowed down Regal hitters en route to 17 strikeouts – all amidst a flat-out wall of heat. Temperatures hovered in the mid-to-upper 90s with a heat index of over 110 degrees.

“My legs felt like they were about 500 pounds,” said Mathews, who has amazingly only issued one walk all season in 67 innings of work.

The scorcher of an evening didn’t matter for the flame-throwing righthander, whose fastball comes close to touching 90 on the gun. He’ll join his Mustangs in an attempt to bring back a state title to Bloomfield.

“It’s unreal. I can’t believe it. I never would have thought going to a high school that we would have made the state tournament. I’m not going to lie,” said Mathews. “Dreams are coming true.”

Davis County, ranked fifth, qualified for the state tournament for the first time in school history last year where the boys from Bloomfield achieved their first ever state victory.

Davis County (30-4) is seeded second and plays 10th-ranked Alta-Aurelia (30-4) on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Principal Park in downtown Des Moines.

“We left Des Moines last year with some things that we thought we left up there,” said Davis County head coach Todd White. “Hopefully we’re going to get back up there and have another shot at it.”

Ironically, Davis County lost its first two games of the season — to Eddyville-Blakesburg. That was Mathews only loss of the summer.

“It might have been the best thing that happened to us all year. It was a wake-up call for us,” said White.

Davis County is a lot more than Mathews, and the Mustangs proved that right out the gate.

Davis County gave all-state Regina pitcher Danny Pacha his first loss of the season on the hill.

All-state shortstop Josh Martsching, Davis County’s other ace pitcher, led off the game with a searing line-drive double. He’d come around to score on an RBI groundout.

Mathews doubled in a run in the third and Nic Johnson rapped an RBI single to make it 3-0 Mustangs. Johnson would crank out an single that plated a run in the fifth.

Davis County poured it on in the final frame.

Mustang senior catcher Kyle Graves tomahawked a “get-out-in-a-hurry” two-run dinger to right that pushed the score up to 6-1.

Davis County leads the state in home runs with 55 as a team.

Austin Roberts laced an two-run triple that just got down inside the chalk in the right field corner to round out the Davis County scoring.

“It’s very sweet, very sweet,” said White. “A lot of contributors ... you go right down the list.”

The only trouble Mathews encountered in his two-hitter came in the fourth. Leadoff hitter Nate Streb stroked a double, which was followed by a bloop double to right by George Stehl. A wild pitch on a strikeout scored the Regals’ only run.

Mathews talked about battling the heat, which had fans in attendance clamoring for the concession stands to stay hydrated.

“It seemed like every inning I just kept getting better,” said Mathews. “I was tired around about the fourth — I didn’t think I was going to make it. About the sixth, something just turned on,” said Mathews, now 10-1.

Mathews, along with Martsching, have given  verbal commitments to the University of Iowa to play baseball.

Davis County 8, Iowa City Regina 1

DC     102    010    4    —    8    8    0         

ICR     000    100    0    —    1    2    0

Davis County battery — Calvin Mathews (W, 10-1) (7IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 17K, 0BB, 1HBP), Kyle Graves catching.

2B — Josh Martsching, Mathews.

3B — Austin Roberts.

HR — Graves.

Hits — Martsching 1-4, Zach Fligg 2-3, Mathews 2-3, Graves 1-3, Nic Johnson 2-3, Roberts 1-2.

RBI — Graves 3, Johnson 2, Roberts 2, Mathews. Runs — Fligg 2, Martsching, Mathews, Graves, Johnson, Jacob Davidson, Park Mikels.

Iowa City Regina battery — Danny Pacha (L, 12-1) (6 1/3 IP, 8H, 7R, 7ER, 6K, 5BB), Brian Romanowski (2/3 IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 2K), Nate Streb catching.

2B — Streb, George Sehl.

Hits — Streb 1-3, Sehl 1-3.

Runs — Streb.