Ottumwa -- Sierra Walton, one of six Indian Hills second-year players honored on Sophomore Day, came through with a pair of home runs and five hits, and the Warriors took both games of a conference doubleheader with Marshalltown on Saturday, winning 8-2 and 12-2 at Hellyer Field.

The Warriors emerged from the weekend, the final one for Region XI play, with their third conference championship in a row under third-year head coach Laura North after Iowa Western, which entered Saturday leading IHCC by two games, lost once to Southeastern and then got swept by Marshalltown on Sunday. As a result, the Warriors will take the number-one seed into the Region XI postseason tourney, finishing with a 9-3 record, one game better than Iowa Western. Indian Hills will play Marshalltown at 10:00 on Friday morning in Council Bluffs in their opening test in the Region XI tournament.

Walton's solo homer leading off the bottom of the 4th snapped a 1-1 tie in the opener against MCC. The Warriors took that 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 5th when Walton and Keagan Helson, another soph, each blasted a 3-run home run to put the opener away. Taylor Jones had scored the first run for Indian Hills when she reached on an infield hit, stole second, moved up on a bunt and scored on an error. Sophomore Marissa Promes went the distance in the circle, scattering five hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Sophomore Shyanne DuBois, a two-year starter for the Warriors, led off the bottom of the 1st of game two with her team-best 11th homer. She had two hits in the first game and also doubled and scored three runs in the second contest. IHCC got RBI hits from Walton and Lexi Smith, then tallied four runs in the 6th to end the game early. Helson's second 3-run blast of the day sent Indian Hills off with their 25th win of the season. Walton was 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs. Helson knocked in four. Olivia Goodale allowed only five hits and one walk and fanned four.