IOWA FALLS, IA – After suffering its first three-game losing streak a week ago, Indian Hills took a pair of road doubleheaders from Ellsworth over the weekend at Cadet Field, winning the Sunday slate, 7-1 and 11-5.
The wins moved IHCC to 23-4 overall and 18-4 in ICCAC play while Ellsworth fell to 13-23 and 6-18 in the league.
The Warriors used a route to victory that they've made a staple all year in jumping out to a quick lead, allowing their pitching to settle in and grind out wins. The recipe was on display in game one as IHCC jumped on ECC starter Elio Narvaez for three runs in the first and tacked on another in the second to stake the visitors to a 4-0 early advantage.
Indian Hills took advantage of a hit batsmen and an ECC error to put a couple on and then a Tucker Ebest sacrifice fly plated one followed by a homer to right from Noel Perez to put IHCC up 3-0 after one.
"Our pitchers might want to thank our hitters, as they came out again and put up early runs," Torrez said. "Pitching is a little less stressful when you have an early lead."
The Warriors used some small ball in the second as C.J. Castillo walked, stole second and scored on a Billy Rivera single to right, and just like that, it was 4-0, Warriors.
"A big thing offensively is finding a way to keep the pressure on the defense," Torrez added. "We won't score every inning, even though we would like to, but we need to do better job of not allowing quick innings when we are ahead. We need to be patient at the plate and work the count a little more by being selective looking for a zone we like."
The four-run cushion was just what the doctor ordered for IHCC starter Douglas Rojas. The Warrior lefty through up four zeros on the board in his first four innings of work, but ran into some control issues in the fifth.
A double and a walk put runners on the corners with one out in the fifth when Rojas battled through to get out number two by fanning Panther leadoff hitter Bryce Hall. Torrez elected to go to the pen after 4 2/3 innings and called on Kohta Kubota to put out the fire.
"Douglas did a good job early, but then the strike zone disappeared on him," Torrez explained. "He battled for us and got a huge strikeout for the second out in bottom of fifth, but then Kohta did a really nice job in a situation he has not been in a lot. He earned some more innings and he proved today that he deserves them. I was really happy for him."
Kubota coaxed an inning-ending groundball to Rivera at third and Warrior reliever would go the rest of the way, surrendering only a solo homerun to Carlos Aranda in the bottom of the sixth with IHCC in command with a 7-0 lead.
Rojas earned the victory on the hill to keep his season mark unblemished at 4-0. The southpaw struck out eight and walked four while giving up just two hits. Kubota went 2 1/3 innings with the only blemish being the Aranda homer.
The Warriors' offense was led by Ricardo Van Grieken, Perez and Rivera, who all had a pair of hits. Van Grieken added a double to go with Perez' big fly.
In the nightcap it was the Panthers who jumped out to the quick lead as ECC plated four runs in the opening inning.
The frame started innocently enough as IHCC starter Gavin Hinckley retired the first two batters on ground balls. A pair of singles followed by a couple IHCC errors to score two, and Ybrahim Quevedo really made the Warrior miscues sting as the Panther catcher deposited a 2-2 offering from Hinckley over the fence in right to make it 4-0 in favor of the hosts.
"In the last game of the weekend you're always a little unsure what you will get from the guys," Torrez admitted. "It's a long two days for our kids, and undoubtedly, they were a little tired."
The IHCC offense came to the rescue in top of the third as five singles and two ECC errors turned the 4-0 Panther lead into a 5-4 Warrior advantage. Ellsworth was able to retire the first two batters of the inning but the error opened the door and Indian Hills burst through it with singles from Pier-Olivier Boucher, Ebest, Perez, Diego Aragon and Rivera to reclaim the lead.
Meanwhile, Dade Hensley (1-0) came on in the bottom of the third for Hinckley and worked 4 1/3 innings of middle-relief to earn the win for IHCC. Hensley would give way to Nick Marshall, who worked out of the pen for the first time, coming on in the eighth inning with the Warriors up 7-5. Marshall would slam the door for the save and the Indian Hills offense tacked on four more insurance runs in the ninth to roll to the 11-5 victory.
"Our bullpen was able to stop them from adding anymore, and our hitters kept putting runners on inning after inning late, and we just outscored them in that last game," Torrez said. "It's nice to go on road and win four games, and I'm really happy with the effort this weekend."
Boucher tallied four hits from the three-hole with a double, a pair of RBI and two runs scored to pace the Warriors' 15-hit attack in game two. Tachioka went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles in the leadoff slot, in addition to a walk and a run scored. Perez went 2-for-3 with his second homer of the day and added a pair of walks and three runs scored. Noah Butler and Shane Morrow both doubled.
IHCC will now prepare for their biggest test of the season to date on Wednesday as the Warriors host No. 7-rated Iowa Western. The highly touted Reivers are 30-5 overall and 21-1 in ICCAC play. Game time from Pat Daugherty Field is set for 1 p.m. for game one of a doubleheader.
GAME ONE
Indian Hills 310 030 0 – 7 8 0
Ellsworth 000 001 0 – 1 3 3
Douglas Rojas, Kohta Kubota (5) and Dave Janssen. Elio Narvaez, Jason Moist (6) and Ybrahim Quevedo.
W – Rojas 4-0. L – Narvaez.
LOB – IH 7, ECC 5. DP – IH 1. 2B – Van Grieken. HR – Perez. RBI – Castillo, Ebest, Perez 2, Rivera. SAC – Ebest. HBP – Tachioka. SB – Boucher 2, Castillo, Janssen, Perez, Rivera, Tachioka 2.
GAME TWO
Indian Hills 005 011 004 – 11 15 4
Ellsworth 400 001 000 – 5 10 4
Gavin Hinckley, Dade Hensley (3), Nick Marshall (8) and Diego Aragon, Janssen (9). Zach Carlsen, Isaac Rohde (6), Cooper Johnson (9) and Fabian Dumey.
W – Hensley 1-0. L – Carlsen. SV – Marshall (1).
E – Castillo, Morrow, Perez, Rivera. LOB – IH 12, ECC 9. DP – ECC 1. 2B – Boucher, Butler, Morrow, Tachioka 2. HR – Perez. RBI – Aragon, Boucher, Butler, Castillo, Perez 2, Van Grieken. SAC – Castillo. HBP – Boucher. SB – Boucher, Van Grieken. CS - Butler.