Iowa Western Gets Series Sweep Over Falcons

Centerville -- After opening conference play with a four-game sweep over Southwestern CC the previous weekend, the Indian Hills Falcons saw their league record slip to .500 when they dropped all four games of a home series against Iowa Western.

The Reivers dominated IHCC, outscoring the Falcons 33-7 in the four games. The Indian Hills offense, which produced 51 runs in the series with Southwestern, scored in only five innings in the four games with IWCC.

Iowa Western used the long ball to take both games on Saturday. All but one of the Reivers' seven runs scored on a home run.

Indian Hills' Matt Cook made only one mistake in the opener, but it cost him the game. Damek Tomscha hit a high fastball over the leftfield fence with a runner on to snap a 2-all tie in a 3-1 win for the visitors. Cook struck out nine in six innings, but his teammates couldn't do much against two Iowa Western pitchers.

The Falcons were held to six hits, five of them singles. Yuliecer Arias drove in Jordan Patton with the lone run in the 3rd inning.

Iowa Western had three homers in game two -- a solo shot and a two-run blow in the 4th and another solo home run in the top of 7th, that proved to be the game-winner.

Carter Sherban got IHCC on the board with a one-out homer in the 2nd and the Falcons scored twice in the 7th to cut the deficit to one run, but had the tying run tagged out on the basepaths to end the game.

Adam Peters worked the first 6 2/3 innings for the Falcons and suffered the loss. He fanned eight and didn't walk anyone.

While Saturday's games were both close, that wasn't the case on Sunday. Iowa Western used a five-run 3rd and a four-run 6th to win the opener, 10-2. The Reivers then closed out the weekend with an 11-run 6th inning in a 16-1 romp in the second game.

And RBI single by Jordan Patton and a sacrifice fly by Adam Coleman accounted for the IHCC runs in the first game. Coleman doubled and scored for the only tally in the second game.

The Falcons' defense really let them down on Sunday. Exactly half of the 26 runs allowed were unearned. There were five errors in the second game.

Iowa Western entered the series trailing the Falcons by one run in conference standings and left town with a three-game lead.

Indian Hills has a busiest week ahead with games at DMACC on Tuesday and at home against North Central Missouri Wednesday and Southeastern Thursday. They return to conference play with four games at Muscatine next weekend.