Centerville, IA – Indian Hills Baseball capped its weekend series with a sweep of Marshalltown Community College on Sunday afternoon to give the Warriors all four wins during the weekend slate. Indian Hills took game one 11-5 and game two 6-0.
One day after sweeping the Tigers 10-0 and 13-3, the Warriors followed up on Sunday at Pat Daugherty Field to collect two more wins and extend the team's winning streak to a season-high seven games. Indian Hills improves to 14-5 overall on the year and 4-0 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play.
Freshman Daniel Figueroa (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Leadership Christian Academy) served as the offensive catalyst in game one with three hits and three RBI. Gerardo Villarreal (Laredo, TX/United South) collected a pair of hits in the opener as well. Noah Butler (Houston, TX/Goose Creek Memorial) tallied two hits in game two, including a double while scoring a run.
While the Warrior offense put together two more impressive showings, the pitching staff dominated the Tiger bats for the second consecutive day. Seven different individuals saw action on the mound and totaled 25 strikeouts on the day and 48 during the weekend series. Jack Payne (San Antonio, TX/Clark) picked up the win in game one, going four innings with five strikeouts and just one hit allowed. Dade Hensley's (Mason, OH/Mason) stellar relief outing in the nightcap earned the righty his first win of the season.
The first three games of the weekend series counted towards conference standings while the final game served as a nonconference matchup, as will be standard throughout the season for all ICCAC teams.
Figueroa scored the game's first run in the first inning, but the lead was short-lived as Marshalltown plated four runs in the top of the second. The bottom half of the second frame saw the Warriors respond with eight runs of their own. A two-run double from Figueroa accounted for the first two runs while Tucker Ebest (Austin, TX/Lasa) and Thomas Emerich (Ava, MO/Ava) each added RBI singles during the outburst for the Warriors.
After the four-run second inning for the Tigers, Indian Hills starting pitcher Greg Campos (Laredo, TX/United South) limited the opposing bats to zero runs over the next two frames while striking out eight batters in four total innings of work. Payne took over to start the fifth and allowed just the one base hit and two walks while striking out five batters to improve to 4-1 on the year.
Figueroa added an RBI single in the seventh for his third knock of the afternoon. The freshman upped his batting average to .431 on the year and extended his hitting streak to six games. During the stretch, Figueroa is batting 11-21 with 11 RBI, 10 runs scored, and six stolen bases.
Ebest opend up the scoring in game two with an RBI single in the first inning to score Sleiter Suriel (Pleasantville, NJ/Pleasantville). The Warriors tacked on three more runs in the third as Jackson Romero (Fort Collins, CO/Resurrection Christian) doubled to drive in Ebest for the 4-0 lead. Aliskair Descartes (Thornton, CO/Unidad Educativa Colegio Libertado) scored the final two runs of the day, one in the fourth and one in the sixth to lead the Warriors to the weekend sweep.
Lukas Broske (West Bend, WI/West Bend West) got the start on the mound and struck out four batters while allowing just three hits. Hensley, making his team-high 10th relief appearance of the year, worked 2.1 innings of scoreless ball while striking out four batters. Hensley allowed just one hit along the way.
The Warriors are back in action on Tuesday, March 29 at Southeastern Community College. Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the game moved up to Tuesday due to impending weather and will begin at 2:00 PM.
