Falcons Battle, But Can't Knock Off Iowa Western

Centerville -- Indian Hills will have to be content with knowing they came close in their four-game series with top-ranked Iowa Western, but the Falcons couldn't duplicate an early-season win over the Reivers and lost all four games on their home field on Sunday and Monday.

The Falcons lost by one, two and three runs in the series. Iowa Western won 16-9 and 3-2 Sunday and 8-5 and 2-0 Monday.

IHCC sophomore Cashtyn DeLeeuw lost a tough game in the series finale, holding Iowa Western to their lowest run total of the season in the 2-0 defeat. DeLeeuw gave up only five hits and single runs in the 4th and 7th innings with one walk and four strikeouts.

His teammates, however, couldn't generate much offense against four IWCC pitchers. The Falcons were limited to four hits, two by Yuliecer Arias. In only one inning, the 2nd, did they have more than one baserunner. That inning, after a single by Jason Bonilla and a hit batsman, the next three batters all struck out.

Monday's first game saw IHCC's Jordan Piche get the start. Piche had defeated Iowa Western, 7-3, on March 24 in Council Bluffs, the Reivers only loss of the season.

And Piche deserved a better fate this time in an 8-5 loss. Half of the runs he allowed were unearned. Piche did allow a dozen hits, but minimized the damage in the innings in which the Reivers scored. He struck out six and didn't walk anyone.

Iowa Western went ahead 6-0 after 3 1/2 innings. The Falcons started to chip away at the lead with two runs in the 4th and three in the 5th.

Four singles led to the two runs in the 4th. An RBI-double by Arias, a run-scoring single by Levi Grassley and a sacrifice fly by Bonilla plated the runs in the 5th. Francis Marcelo, with his team trailing by two runs, chased the IWCC leftfielder back to the fence to catch his bid for a game-tying homer to end that inning.

Grassley and Taylor Ostrich had two hits each for IHCC and Ostrich scored twice.

Indian Hills wasted a good pitching performance by freshman Anthony Gagliardi in the second game on Sunday, a 3-2 loss. After the teams combined for 25 runs and 26 hits in the opener, Gagliardi permitted only three runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out six.

The Falcons tied the game at 1-all on a double by Jeremy Delgado in the 3rd and got to within 3-2 when Bonilla singled home Grassley, who had doubled, in the 6th. Delgado had two of the six hits for IHCC.

The two teams took advantage of the wind blowing out in the opener. Iowa Western had three home runs and the Falcons had a grand-slam from Bonilla and a two-run shot by Delgado. They combined to drive in all nine runs for Indian Hills.

Falcons' pitchers Tyler Sparger and Darwin Miranda couldn't keep the high-scoring Reivers offense in check, with Sparger taking the loss. The Falcons committed five errors leading to seven unearned runs.

Indian Hills will play a non-conference game against North Central (Mo) on Tuesday and then return to league play in a doubleheader at Southwestern CC on Wednesday.