St. George, Utah -- Indian Hills lost a high-scoring battle with McLennan CC on Thursday afternoon and was knocked out of the NJCAA Division I National Championship. IHCC came back from an early 12-1 deficit to make things interesting, scoring five runs in the 3rd inning and three more in the 5th. But McLennan held off the Warriors to stay alive in the tourney.
Indian Hills had opened with a first-round loss to Chipola, the defending national champs, 8-1, on Wednesday evening.
In the McLennan contest, IHCC pounded out 15 hits, outhitting the winners 15-12. Sierra Walton had three hits and Shyanne Dubois, Mallory Madsen, Kacey Duffield and Chelsea Eads all had two-hit games.
McLennan jumped ahead with four runs in the top of the 2nd. The Warriors got one back in the bottom of the inning on consecutive doubles by Walton and Emily Garcia.
Starter Nataliah Hopkins gave way to Marissa Promes to start the 3rd inning and the freshman allowed all eight runs, although only two were earned. Just three of MCC's dozen runs were earned as the Warriors committed five errors.
Indian Hills put together a big inning of its own in the bottom of the 3rd. Singles by Madsen, Duffield and Kassidi Henderson loaded the bases. Walton got the first run home on a sacrifice fly. Eads followed with an RBI single and Shannan Finneran's infield single scored another run. Dubois RBI double accounted for the 5th run of the frame.
The first of three IHCC runs in the 5th scored when Walton scampered home on a passed ball. A two-run double by Madsen plated Dubois and Courtney Hahn and the Warriors were within three at 12-9.
But that's the way it ended, despite singles by Walton and Eads that produced a threat in the 6th.
The Warriors were pushed into the consolation bracket by a red-hot Chipola team. They jumped out to a quick 2-0 advantage after one inning. Indian Hills responded when Kassidi Henderson singled to drive in Emily Brown the next inning. However, the Warriors were shut out after that, getting only two hits, singles by Henderson and Finneran, after the 2nd inning.
Hopkins went all the way in the circle for Indian Hills. Ilona Andringa pushed her season record to 28-3 as the winning pitcher for the Indians.
Indian Hills ends the year with a 41-19 record, the highest win total since the 2007 team was 42-15. They'll have to replace six members of a talented sophomore class with Madsen, Eads, Duffield, Hopkins, Brown and Finneran all departing after the season.
Those six ladies were a key part of an IHCC team that won both the regular season and post-season conference title each of the last two years.