CENTERVILLE, IA – Leave no doubt.
That's exactly what Indian Hills did yesterday in the opening round of Region XI postseason play at Pat Daugherty Field as the Warriors were favored on paper, but delivered on the field as IHCC eliminated Southwestern with two 10-run-rule six-inning victories, 12-2 and 10-0 to advance to next weekend's Regional Finals.
The second seed entering ICCAC postseason play, the Warriors came into Saturday's action with more than 20 more victories than their opponents from Creston, including three regular season wins against no losses versus Southwestern. IHCC had outscored SWCC 28-6 in those prior three games, and it was important to get up early and not let the third-seeded Spartans think they could hang around and steal a game in the best-of-three series.
The games were bumped up a couple of hours to an 11 a.m start to hopefully avoid incoming rain in the forecast, and in part thanks to the run-rule shortened contests, the Warriors were indeed able to dodge the rain, in addition to any thoughts of an upset from the visiting Spartans.
"We came out with great energy excited to play, we knew that it could be a long day with the expected rain, but the energy was great from the beginning," said IHCC Head Coach Matthew Torrez. "We did what it takes to win in the playoffs, we got timely hitting, played clean defense and threw strikes, that will get you a long way."
Torrez handed the ball in game one to Wyatt Wendell, and the right hander didn't disappoint as he went the distance pitching all six innings. Wendell's only difficult inning came in the third with the Warriors already leading 5-0 when SWCC put together four of their six hits in the inning to plate their only two runs on the day.
"Wyatt did a great job for us," said Torrez. "With pitchers there is usually one inning where the other team can get to them, they had their one against Wyatt, and he did great job making sure there was not another one."
Wendell, struck out seven and walked one as the Purdue commit moved to 6-3 on the season.
Meanwhile, the Warrior offense was consistent the entire way in the opener as IHCC pushed across a run in every frame in rolling to the ten-run victory. Ricardo Van Grieken and Dave Janssen each provided a pair of his and an RBI to give Torrez some punch from the end of the order. Janssen and Tucker Ebest each added a double to the Warriors' 10-hit attack.
"We set a good tone for the day early," Torrez added. "It was great to see our guys putting pressure on them in every inning and we kept it going the entire game."
Game two was more of the winning-formula that the Warriors used in the opener as starter Maddux Hoaglund gave Torrez the luxury of giving his bullpen the day off throughout the doubleheader. Hoaglund struck out nine over the six-inning shutout while surrendering just a pair of singles while walking three.
"Maddux was really good early," Torrez said. "He also had an inning where they had a chance to get to him, but he made a big pitch to end the fourth, then he was able to settle in and shut them out the next two innings."
Like the opener, the Warriors put their starter at ease with early runs as IHCC went up 9-0 after just two innings. However, three consecutive scoreless innings followed, which didn't sit well with the Indian Hills skipper.
"Our offense came out and put them on their heels early," Torrez said. "But, after the second, it felt like we went in to coast a little. We talked about putting pressure back on them so we would not let them back in game."
The Warriors, now 37-12, got the run they needed to set up the early finish in the sixth as Ren Tachioka, Samuel Fortier and C.J. Castillo strung together consecutive singles, and Spartan pitcher Alex Amaral forced in a run by giving Ebest a base-on-balls. Hoaglund slammed the door on SWCC (16-41) in the bottom of the frame with a pair of groundouts and his ninth strikeout to put an exclamation point on the sweep.
"I was really proud of the energy from our kids today," Torrez said. "We were ready for the long day and it showed all day."
The win advances IHCC to the Region Finals where a bid to the Midwest District Tournament will be on the line beginning Friday at Council Bluffs against top-seeded and No. 5-ranked, Iowa Western, (49-8). It's be another best-of-three series that would spill into a winner-take-all game on Saturday if the teams were to split Friday's pair of contests. The two teams split four regular season contests with each team sweeping on their home field.
First pitch from Doc Ross Field on Friday is noon. Saturday's third game, if needed, would be played at noon. The Region XI champion will advance to District Tournament, May 19-22 at the Region IV champion's site in Illinois.
REGION XI SEMIFINALS
GAME ONE
Southwestern 002 000 – 2 6 5
Indian Hills 231 222 – 12 10 0
Noah Carpenter, Tyler Farmer (6) and Carlos Muniz. Wyatt Wendell and Dave Janssen.
W – Wendell (6-3). L – Carpenter.
LOB – SW 5, IH 5. 2B – Ebest, Janssen. RBI – Castillo, Ebest 2, Fortier, Janssen, Perez, Rodriguez 2, Tachioka, Van Grieken. SAC – Fortier, Rodriguez. SB – Castillo, Fortier, Rodriguez, Tachioka, Van Grieken.
GAME TWO
Indian Hills 450 001 – 10 9 0
Southwestern 000 000 – 0 2 1
Maddux Hoaglund and Dave Janssen. Kelvin Roman, Alex Amaral (3) and Carlos Muniz.
W – Hoaglund (7-0). L – Roman.
LOB – IH 5, SW 5. 2B – Perez. 3B – Boucher. RBI – Boucher 3, Castillo, Ebest, Perez 2, Van Grieken. HBP – Fortier. SB – Tachioka. CS – Perez.