Springfield, Missouri -- Indian Hills went on the road Thursday for a pair of early-season non-conference games and went home with a split. The Falcons played a couple of one-run contests, beating Kansas City Kansas, 5-4, then losing to State Fair (Mo.), 4-3.
Luis Rivera got the win in relief in the opener with Wyatt Wendell picking up a save. Rivera threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings after replacing starter Omar Vigil in the 5th inning. IHCC plated four runs in the 4th inning, then pushed across the game-winner in the bottom of the 5th. Soren Graversen's two-run triple was the big blow in the 5th. Matthew Moon followed Graversen's triple with his own three-base hit and then scored on Alex Fisher's single. The winning run was scored by Nathan Chasey. Fisher was 2-for-3 at the plate.
"Fundamentally we played better than we did on our opening trip," said IHCC coach Matthew Torrez. "We kept ourselves in the game and executed late to capture the win."
State Fair tallied the game-winning run in the bottom of the 6th in the day's second game. Declan Buckle led the Falcons at the plate with a triple and two walks. The runs were driven in by Garrett Takamatsu, Fisher and Jay Hester. Indian Hills stole seven bases, two of them by Fisher. Alex Galvez started and lasted only 1 2/3 innings. Jordan Bahnuk supplied 1 1/3 innings of relief, then Wendell finished up and took the loss.
"The lack of team offense and execution early, along with not getting a quality start, came back to hurt us," Torrez said.