Ottumwa -- All three of the other Region XI teams had a chance to knock off Indian Hills in this weekend's postseason tournament. None of them was successful, and as a result the Warriors grabbed their 4th consecutive postseason championship, matching the four straight regular season titles for coach Laura North's crew, one in each year North has been the IHCC head coach.
Indian Hills romped to a 10-3 win over Marshalltown CC and a 9-3 blasting of Southeastern CC on Friday, then knocked off Iowa Western, 7-5, Saturday to advance to the district tournament for the 4th year in a row.
As they have done all season long, the Warriors used the long ball to bludgeon their conference foes, swatting 10 home runs, including four in the SCC and Iowa Western games.
All seven runs against Iowa Western came from homers. After a Reiver solo shot opened the scoring in Saturday's title game, Cheyanne Bergert tied it up in the bottom of the 2nd. Jaylie Reints put IHCC on top with a 3-run blow the next inning. Iowa Western's Zoe Hicks made it a 4-4 score in the top of the 5th, but Erin Kuba's two-run roundtripper gave the Warriors the lead for good. Taylor Takushi added an insurance run with a solo bomb in the 6th and Olivia Goodale came on to nail down the victory, as she had done twice on Friday.
Lexi Smith and Bergert supplied solo homers in the MCC win. The first three batters in the order -- Taylor Jones, Kuba and Smith -- combined for eight hits, five runs and five RBIs. Helaina Johnson and Reints had two-hit games. Abby Straight went five strong innings, surrendering only a 3-run home run, before Goodale finished with two shutout innings of relief.
Against SCC, Indian Hills spotted the Blackhawks a quick 1-0 lead, then plated four in the bottom of the 2nd. The Warriors expanded the advantage with two runs in the 4th, one in the 5th and two in the 6th. Both Reints and Vanessa Bakley went deep twice and Bakley knocked in five runs and Reints and Taylor DuBois two apiece. Carlyn Stanley started in the circle and worked five frames. Goodale again threw two scoreless innings.
The four home runs in the Iowa Western win gives Indian Hills 77 for the season. They have slammed one in 32 of their 56 games on the way to an overall record of 46-10. In 23 games they have had two or more long balls and the SCC and IWCC games were the 5th and 6th times this season they have had four in a game. Thirty-five of the homers have come in the last 20 games.
Goodale pitched two innings in all three of the region tourney contests. In six innings, the sophomore allowed only five hits and an unearned run, striking out four while not walking a batter.
Indian Hills moves on to take on Three Rivers CC in the best-of-three district tournament in Poplar Bluff, Mo. The event starts with two games on Friday. If each team wins a game, the winner-take-all final would be on Saturday. IHCC has claimed the district crown the past two years, beating Jefferson College both times to qualify for the NJCAA national championship. A trip to St. George, Utah is on the line again this week.