Centerville -- After taking the final game of a conference series with league-leading Iowa Western the weekend before, Indian Hills won the first three games against Marshalltown CC on Friday and Saturday, before dropping the series finale to the Tigers.
The Falcons swept the games in Marshalltown, 6-4 and 10-5, then won the opener at Pat Daugherty Field, 7-5, before bowing, 9-2.
Wyatt Wendell gave IHCC another quality start in the first game of the set, permitting seven hits and only one earned run in his six innings with one walk and six strikeouts. Jordan Bahnuk came in in relief and allowed two runs and had the bases loaded with one out before back-to-back punchouts to end the threat and the game. Soren Graversen had a pair of hits and Matthew Moon, Garrett Takamatsu, Jameson Hart, Alex Fisher, Brady Nowicki and Jay Hester each had one. Takamatsu scored twice. Fisher and Nathan Chasey each came through with a sacrifice fly. "Wyatt didn't have his best stuff today," said IHCC coach Matthew Torrez, "but he showed a lot of toughness giving us a chance to win. We put enough quality at-bats together to come out on top."
"We did a better job offensively getting good at-bats and taking what the defense gave us," Torrez said about the second game. "We capitalized on some free bases." The Falcons led 3-2 after three innings, then plated five runs in the 4th and two more in the 5th to go up 10-2. They banged out 14 hits -- three apiece by Jacob Kristensen and Chasey and two for both Takamatsu and Graversen. Hester, Hart and Nowicki had two RBIs and Graversen three. Zacharie Allard matched Wendell's six-inning outing from game one, and Nick Marshall finished up.
IHCC had only nine hits in Saturday's twinbill, yet managed a split with a strong start by Omar Vigil a big help in the first game. Vigil gave up only three hits and struck out 12 in his six innings. Again, it was Marshall who got the final three outs. "Offensively, we did a good job gettings guys on base and did enough to come out on top," Torrez remarked about his squad which supplemented the offense with five walks and two hit batsmen. Takamatsu had a good game with two doubles, three runs scored, two RBIs and a sac fly. Fisher scored three times and tripled. The Falcons also stole five bases, including two each by Hester and Fisher.
Indian Hills failed to make it a clean sweep of the weekend though, managing only four hits in game two on Saturday. Fisher, Graversen, Moon and Chasey had the hits and Chasey swiped two bases. Luis Rivera was roughed up in his start and took the loss on the mound. "Overall the effort was there, we just did a poor job executing and to their credit they took advantage of that," said Torrez. "It was still a good weekend though, winning three of four, and we'll get back to work on Monday."
The Falcons will play at Iowa Central Tuesday and take on Southwestern in a four-game series next weekend.