Centerville -- Indian Hills outscored Southwestern, 31-4, and took all four games in an ICCAC series with Southwestern CC. The Falcons pasted the Spartans, 14-1 and 9-0, on Thursday, then won two lower-scoring games, 2-0 and 6-3, Saturday at Pat Daugherty Field, to even their conference record at 4-4.
The first two batters in the IHCC lineup -- Will Zimmerman and Ryan Humeniuk -- did a great job of jump-starting the offense in the first doubleheader. They combined to go 11-for-15 in the two games with 12 RBIs. Leadoff hitter Zimmerman was 3-for-4 with three runs and four RBIs in the opening game and Humeniuk went 4-for-4 with a run and two driven in. Zimmerman's contribution included a triple and a homer. Christian Pena and Jay Hester had a pair of hits each and Justin King, Zachary Fascia, Jet Weber and Hester all scored twice. Caleb Miley pitched an efficient five innings, spacing five hits with one walk and six Ks.
Humeniuk and Justin King both homered in the second game, Hester had two more hits and Jameson Hart scored a pair of runs. DJ Depiero went the distance on the mound to get the win. King and Humeniuk are tied for the team lead in home runs with eight.
Hits were harder to come by in the Saturday twinbill, but the Falcons got another sweep thanks to some strong pitching from first-game starter Rodny Valdes and second-game reliever Jordan Bahnuk. Valdes gave up only three hits in six scoreless innings in the first game and Fascia came out from behind the plate (he was the starting catcher) to strike out the side in an impressive save. Fascia also supplied all the offense with a two-run double that scored Humeniuk and King in the 5th inning.
Indian Hills got their scoring taken care of early in the nightcap, with three runs in the 1st, two in the 2nd and one in the 3rd. IHCC managed only three hits, the biggest a two-run double by King. The other RBIs were from Pena, Weber, Hart and Jake Kristensen. After Yasiel Valdez pitched the first three innings for the Falcons, Bahnuk came on in relief and allowed just one hit and one walk in three innings with three strikeouts. Corey Jackson finished up on the mound, fanning two in his only inning.
The four wins leave IHCC with a 17-12 record heading into a non-conference game with DMACC on Tuesday.