CENTERVILLE, IA – Indian Hills capped a thrilling day of baseball at Pat Daugherty Field Wednesday with the second of two walk-off upset victories over No. 7-rated Iowa Western. The statement wins both ended with Warrior players rushing the field in celebration as IHCC showed it has no intentions of going away in the race for the ICCAC regular season title.
Indian Hills (25-4 overall, 20-4 league) entered the day trailing the talented Reivers by three games in the loss column as Iowa Western (30-7, 21-3) had just one blemish on its conference record. The Reivers left town up just one game in the ICCAC standings as IHCC has now won six straight.
"My team plays every inning," said IHCC Head Coach Matthew Torrez after seeing the Warriors sweep the Reivers for the first time since downing Iowa Western for a pair at Pat Daugherty Field on March 28, 2015. "Anytime you can beat a quality opponent, you've got to be happy about it. The big thing right there was to get a couple of wins and get us back in the race."
The first of two thrillers saw Indian Hills plate their only run of the first six innings in the first frame as Shane Morrow drove in Ricardo Van Grieken. That run stood up until the top of the fifth when Iowa Western pushed two across without the benefit of a hit as a pair of walks and two Warrior errors allowed the Reivers to capture a 2-1 advantage.
"I was really proud of our guys just staying in the game after we gave up the lead," Torrez said. "Our pitching minimized that inning, and then put up two zeros to set the stage for our seventh inning."
Sophomore Dave Janssen got the seventh started with one out as the Warrior catcher caught IWCC third baseman Trenton Harris playing deep enough to try to lay down a surprise bunt attempt. The strategy worked perfectly as Janssen reached to begin the rally.
"I always tell the guys, if it surprises me, then it's a good play," Torrez said of Janssen's bunt. "I was like, 'yep, that'll work right there,' so that's a really good thing when the guys can think on their own and make plays like that."
Reiver reliever Noah Manning then issued a walk to C.J. Castillo to put two runner on, prompting Iowa Western to bring on Grant Hubka on to face pinch-hitter Tucker Ebest. Ebest battled back from an 0-2 count to draw another walk to load the bags with one away.
Janssen's heroics continued as he would scamper home on a passed ball to tie it 2-2, leaving Castillo at third and pinch runner Maddux Hoaglund at second. Samuel Fortier would reach on an infield error to reload the bases.
Hubka would fan Noah Butler for the second out, but another Reiver passed ball sent Castillo charging for the plate to score the winning run. Reiver catcher Carter Wright's return throw to the plate looked to be in plenty of time to get Castillo, but the ball was dropped sending the Warriors out of the dugout in celebration.
Dade Hensley (3-0) would earn the win in two innings of relief of starter Charles Lefebvre, allowing one hit on a strikeout and one walk.
IHCC was out hit 4-2 in the pitcher's duel, as the only Warrior hits were Morrow's RBI in the first and Janssen's bunt in the seventh.
As scarce as offense was in the opener, it was even harder to find in the scheduled nine-inning affair in the nightcap. The teams produced six hits each, but it took eleven innings to settle it after the teams were locked up at 1-1 from the fifth inning on.
"We need, we need to see some more 'velo,'" Torrez explained. "They ran some guys out there with a little more velocity than we've seen on the weekends, and I think our guys maybe have their eyes open a little bit and understand these are some of the things that we need to get better at offensively so we can put quality at bats together. We're not going to get a lot of hits against quality pitching all the time, but we'd like quality at bats, more productive at bats. We had some runners in scoring position a couple times and we just needed ground ball."
IHCC scored its game-tying run in the fifth with the help of a pair of Reiver errors as Billy Rivera singled and came around to score on a Fortier bunt that produced a couple Iowa Western miscues.
That would be all either team could muster until the bottom of the eleventh. Castillo would walk to start the rally and moved to second when Janssen reached on an error. Janssen was forced out at second on a Rivera grounder to third, leaving Warrior runners on the corners with one away. Fortier forced the bags full again with another walk and Ren Tachioka plopped a single into left to bring home Castillo with his second game-winner of the day, and once again, the infield grass at Pat Daugherty Field was filled with celebrating IHCC players.
"I was great to get this done against a quality team," Torrez said. "This gives our guys a measuring stick of things we do well and things we can get better at."
Tachioka led the Warrior offense in the nightcap going 2-for-6 with the game winning RBI. Nick Nick Marshall (4-0) collected the win in relief as the usual starter came out of the pen to close it out in the eleventh.
The Warriors travel to Cedar Rapids this weekend for another two-day four-game set against Kirkwood. First pitch Saturday is 1 p.m. and things get underway at noon on Sunday.
GAME ONE
Iowa Western 000 020 0 – 2 4 1
Indian Hills 100 000 2 – 3 2 3
Ernie Day, Noah Manning (6), Grant Hubka (7) and Carter Wright. Charles Lefebvre, Dade Hensley (6) and Dave Janssen.
W – Hensley (3-0). L – Manning.
E – Lefebvre, Rivera, Tachioka. LOB – IW 8, IH 3. RBI – Morrow. HBP – Boucher. SB – Van Grieken.
GAME TWO
Iowa Western 000 100 000 00 – 1 6 5
Indian Hills 000 010 000 01 – 2 6 1
Will Stevens, Caleb Riedel (4), Samson Holcomb (5), Michael Finan (7), Brant Hogue (9), Jake Leger (9) and Brady Prewitt. Arturo Rodriguez, Jurgen Zwitzer (6), Gavin Hinckley (8), Kohta Kubota (9), Nick Marshall (10) and Dave Janssen.
W – Marshall (4-0), L – Leger.
E – Van Grieken. LOB – IW 6, IH 10. DP – IW 1. RBI – Tachioka. SB – Fortier, Tachioka.