Centerville, IA – The Indian Hills Baseball team fell in extra innings on Saturday night to Des Moines Area Community College. The Warriors dropped the league contest 11-10 in 11 innings at Pat Daugherty Field.
The Warriors jumped out to a 10-3 lead through five innings, but the offense stalled down the stretch as the Bears stole an Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) victory. The Warriors fall to 29-14 overall and 19-8 in league play while the Bears move to 31-17 and 17-10 in the ICCAC.
Ricardo Van Grieken (Merida, Venezuela/San Luis) paced the offense with three hits and a pair of RBI. Daniel Figueroa (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Leadership Christian Academy), Tucker Ebest (Austin, TX/Lasa), and Lukas Broske (West Bend, WI/West Bend West) all connected on home runs in the early offensive onslaught for the Warriors.
On a blustery night at Pat Daugherty Field, the Warriors built a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a solo home run from Ebest. Broske sent a solo shot to right to open up the scoring in the second before Noah Butler (Houston, TX/Goose Creek Memorial) tripled to make it 4-0. Figueroa's two-run home run in the second pushed the Warrior lead to 6-0.
The Bears, playing as the home team due to a location change, scored a run in the second and two more in the third to cut the deficit in half. Indian Hills responded with four unanswered runs, including three in the fourth as Gerardo Villarreal's (Laredo, TX/United South) RBI double and Jackson Romero's (Fort Collins, CO/Resurrection Christian) run-scoring triple helped give Indian Hills a 10-3 lead.
The Bears slowly chipped away at the Warrior lead, scoring two in the sixth, one in the seventh, and two in the eighth. The Bears scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings.
Neither side failed to convert in the 10th inning despite the Warriors placing a runner on third with one out. Indian Hills drew a leadoff walk in the 11th but failed to advance to scoring position, setting the stage for the Bears' dramatics in the bottom half. With two outs, DMACC's Tre Mungin delivered an RBI single for the walk-off win.
Starting pitcher Douglas Rojas (Valencia, Venezuela/U.E. Cabriales) struck out 11 batters for the Warriors in 5.1 innings of work.
The two teams will square off in Boone, IA on Sunday for a conference doubleheader.