CENTERVILLE, IA – May 5, 2019.
That's the last time Indian Hills Baseball had played a home game at Pat Daugherty Field.
Twenty-two months later, after enduring a grueling global pandemic and having two-thirds of a season wiped out because of it, Coach Matt Torrez and his Warriors were back on the home diamond Saturday, and the results were in favor of the hosts as they swept Iowa Lakes, 2-1 and 10-3.
The victories kept IHCC unbeaten at 7-0 and also served as the conference openers for both squads as the Warriors sit at 2-0 in ICCAC play.
"What a great feeling to finally have baseball back at Pat Daugherty Field," Torrez beamed after the sweep. "Twenty-two months is a long time. And to have fans in the stands? It was refreshing for sure."
The Warriors, who had outbursts of 14 or more runs in three of their five wins coming in, found a way to win when their offense wasn't nearly as potent in the opener Saturday.
IHCC managed only seven hits in the game one with nary an extra-base knock, yet still found a way to collect the victory, largely due to the Warriors getting another outstanding effort from a starting pitcher.
Wyatt Wendell picked up his second win in as many outings with a six-inning gem that saw the Purdue commit surrender just one run on five hits. Wendell struck out 12 and walked three.
"As a baseball coach you understand that there is going to be an end to all the offense we had been producing," Torrez said. "There is always a day where it just does not go your way offensively, and today was that day. Our pitchers kept them off the scoreboard long enough for the offense to do enough to punch a couple runs across."
Iowa Lakes would forge a 1-0 lead in the top of the second by stringing together a single and walk and an Akxel Soto double to score Ben Bach. Fortunately the Lakers were having offensive troubles of their own dealing with Wendell, and that would be all the Lakers would get across in the contest.
IHCC evened things up in the fourth as consecutive singles from Pier-Olivier Boucher, Tucker Ebest and Noel Perez to make it 1-1. The fifth inning provided the difference as Ren Tachioka reached on a bunt single and moved to second on Sam Fortier's infield single. Tachioka would steal third and score the eventual game-winner on a C.J. Castillo sacrifice fly to right.
Things got dicey in the final inning as Iowa Lakes would load the bases on reliever Arturo Rodriguez after a walk, error and hit batsmen. Rodriguez would end up digging out of it by striking out the side to earn the save, with the last coming against Caden White to end the suspense.
"The seventh didn't start the way we wanted, but Arturo settled in and really shut the door for us," Torrez added. "It was a really nice thing to see."
Ebest and Tachioka were the only Warriors to collect multiple hits with each netting a pair of singles.
Game two was a scheduled nine-inning affair and the Warriors pushed their run total to double-digits again to earn their seventh win without a loss.
IHCC plated three in the second inning and four in the eighth to go along with single tallies in the first, fifth and sixth frames to keep the Lakers at bay.
Maddux Hoaglund was impressive in his first career start as the right-hander struck out 11 over six innings of work. Hoaglund gave up just two runs on four hits and three walks.
"Maddux was stellar today," Torrez said. "It's great to see a guy do that in his first time out."
Hoaglund got more than enough support as the Warriors rapped out eight hits, and were the beneficiary of some control issues from the Laker pitchers was IHCC earned nine walks and were hit by pitches on seven different occasions.
"Our offense had a little bit of a rebound and it was great to see us get some runs late to get away from the day feeling good about ourselves offensively," Torrez added.
Tachioka went 2-for-4 with a double and a pair of RBI while Boucher was 2-for-4 with a double and two walks. David Janssen had a double and knocked in one and Castillo added an RBI-triple.
Gavin Hinckley pitched two innings in relief and Gerical Reyes struck out the side in the ninth.
"Today was a hard fought day, and our kids did a good job giving effort for all 16 innings," Torrez concluded.
Indian Hills will continue the four-game set with the Lakers again on Sunday as the two team play another doubleheader. First pitch from Pat Daugherty Field is set for noon.
GAME ONE
Iowa Lakes 010 000 0 – 1 5 1
Indian Hills 000 110 x – 2 7 2
WP – Wyatt Wendell (2-0), LP – Logan Ferguson, SV – Arturo Rodriguez.
(RBI – Castillo, Perez; SB – Butler, Castillo, Fortier, Janssen, Tachioka; CS – Castillo, Tachioka).
GAME TWO
Iowa Lakes 001 100 100 – 3 7 4
Indian Hills 130 011 04x- 10 8 1
WP – Maddux Hoaglund (1-0), LP – Jacob Gilbert.
(2B – Bouches, Janssen, Tachioka; 3B – Castillo; RBI – Castillo, Janssen, Tachioka 2; SAC – Fortier, Van Grieken; HBP – Castillo, Janssen, Perez 2, Rodriguez, Tachioka, Van Grieken; CS – Castillo).