Council Bluffs, Iowa -- Luis Rivera and Nick Marshall combined to shut down the Iowa Western bats and Indian Hills bounced back to win the final game of the weekend's four-game conference series by a score of 3-0. It was the first regular-season league loss for IWCC since April 2017 when they dropped a 2-1 decision at Indian Hills. They won all 24 league games last year and were 10-0 in the ICCAC this spring before being blanked on Sunday.
The Falcons' bats were quiet for the first three games of the series, losing to the Reivers, 5-0 and 5-1 on Saturday, and 4-1 in Sunday's opener.
Rivera went the first three innings in the IHCC victory, permitting only two hits. Marshall, pitching in relief for the second straight day, then threw four scoreless frames, giving up three hits. "I thought those two did a good job of throwing strikes and keeping them off balance," said Matthew Torrez, IHCC head coach. "We did just enough offensively to get the win. This was a step in the right direction and we will build off this moving forward." Cooper Huckabone's sacrifice fly scored Jet Weber with the game's first run in the 1st inning. Indian Hills added to the lead with an unearned run in the 4th and Jameson Hart tripled home Alex Fisher, who had doubled, in the 6th for an insurance tally. Brady Nowicki had the other hit for IHCC.
On Saturday, the Falcons managed only one run, that coming when Garrett Takamatsu doubled in Jake Kristensen in game two. In the opener, Iowa Western took advantage of IHCC mistakes, scoring two runs on an infield error and two more on wild pitches. Hart's single was the only other Indian Hills hit in game one. Zacharie Allard took a tough loss on the mound. "Zach gave us a chance to win, but the defense behind him had some miscues and a good team capitalized on those mistakes," Torrez said. The long ball hurt Indian Hills in the third game of the series. IWCC had a solo homer and a three-run shot, both in the 2nd inning, to account for all their scoring in the 4-1 decision. Indian Hills had singles from Hart, Huckabone, Weber and Matthew Moon. The IHCC run scored when Huckabone lifted a sac fly with the bases loaded in the 3rd. But the Falcons couldn't score again despite having opportunities with runners in scoring position in other innings as well. Omar Vigil was knocked out after the second-inning home runs and Nathan Chasey was outstanding in relief, going 4 1/3 innings of shutout baseball, with three hits and one walk. Torrez called it a solid junior college baseball game.
After the Falcons defeated Iowa Western for the Reivers' last ICCAC regular-season loss two years ago, Indian Hills went on to knock off the Reivers twice in the Region XI postseason tourney to capture the championship.
Indian Hills, now 16-18 and 6-6 in the conference, squares off against Southeastern CC on Tuesday in West Burlington.