Indian Hills Drops Four to Reivers

vs IW

Centerville -- An inability to generate much offense and some defensive miscues cost the Indian Hills Falcons dearly in a four-game conference series with Iowa Western over the weekend.  IHCC lost twice on Saturday by scores of 1-0 and 4-2, then were defeated 3-0 and 3-2 in a Sunday twinbill at Pat Daugherty Field.

The first game of the series saw Indian Hills held to just one hit -- a single by Christian Pena.  Kobe Hyland singled home DH Ronald Sweeny with the game's only run in the top of the 1st inning.  Caleb Miley was a tough-luck losing pitcher for the Falcons, allowing the lone run and just four hits with four strikeouts in his six innings on the hill.  Jordan Bahnuk pitched a scoreless 7th for IHCC.

In the nigthcap, Indian Hills was on top 2-1 going into the top of the 7th and a split was within reach.  But the Reivers tallied three runs against IHCC closer Zachary Fascia, all of the runs unearned.  Tyler Reichenborn's two-run double snapped a 2-2 deadlock.  The Falcons' runs were scored when Ryan Humeniuk doubled home Jay Hester in the 3rd and Will Zimmerman lofted a sacrifice fly to bring home Hester in the 5th.  Hester had two of IHCC's four hits, one of them a triple.  Falcons' starter DJ DePiero was strong, permitting just two hits and an unearned run in five innings with four strikeouts.  Oracio DeLeon threw a shutout inning in the 6th, but Fascia's defense let him down in the 7th.

For the second time in the series, and the third time in the past four games, Indian Hills managed only one hit in the first game Sunday.  Hester's single was all IHCC got against IWCC's Sean Chandler.  Rodny Valdes gave up the three Reivers' runs, only one of them earned, in four innings and Hunter Capps fired three scoreless innings in relief.

Indian Hills took a 2-0 lead into the 5th inning of game two, only to see Iowa Western score three runs.  Declan Buckle provided two of the Falcons' six hits.  Humeniuk, Fascia, Pena and Jameson Hart had the others.  Justin King gave IHCC the lead with a first-inning sacrifice fly, scoring Will Zimmerman.  Pena made it 2-0 with an RBI single that chased home King in the 3rd.  But Iowa Western fought back and the Falcons saw their conference record drop to 7-9 and overall mark to 22-18.

IHCC will step out of the conference this week to play at Iowa Central on Tuesday and Kirkwood on Wednesday.  The next league action will be four games in the upcoming weekend against Southwestern.