Centerville -- Indian Hills and Iowa Western emerged from the weekend four-game series at Pat Daugherty Field right where they were when things started on Friday afternoon -- still tied for first in the conference standings. The teams split the four contests -- Iowa Western taking the first and last games, and IHCC winning the middle two.
Each team is 15-5 in league play with four games remaining in the conference season. Indian Hills goes to Marshalltown this weekend while Iowa Western takes on Muscatine.
The Falcons got outstanding pitching in its two victories. The starters, Derek Kawlewski and Alsis Herrera, both threw five strong innings. Cody Hinson relieved Kawlewski in a 9-1 IHCC romp and added two shutout frames, while Joelfi Arias took over for Herrera and fired two perfect innings and got the 2-1 win when the Falcons tallied the winning run on a passed ball in the bottom of the 7th.
IWCC won 7-5 in Friday's first game and 9-1 in the series finale.
In the 2-1 victory for IHCC, Jake Lewis led off the bottom of the 7th and was hit by a pitch. Mike Levar sacrificed pinch runner Kyle Keck to 2nd base and a passed ball that was then kicked into the IHCC dugout allowed Keck to score the game-winner.
Each team had four hits and seven of the eight safeties were singles.
Joel Booker and Paolo Montezuma singled in the IHCC 4th, but were stranded. Joel Fuentes and Junior Santos had the other singles, in the 5th and 6th, respectively.
Quinn Carpenter singled home Jason McMurray for the Iowa Western run in the 2nd, the only score against Herrera, who allowed just four hits and one walk with two strikeouts in his five innings.
After Arias threw the first of his two perfect innings in relief, IHCC tied the score at 1-all in the bottom of the 6th. Joel Booker reached on a one-out error and scored on another miscue. Arias retired all three hitters in the top of the 7th, the last two on punchouts, before Lewis scored the game-ending run in the bottom half.
Indian Hills bounced back nicely after losing the first game Friday for the convincing win. Levar's two-run homer in the 2nd started the scoring and solo shot by Montezuma in the 6th ended the nine-run effort.
In between, Santos tripled and scored on a Montezuma single in the 3rd, the Falcons got a run on an error and another one on Santos' sac fly in the 4th, Levar had an RBI groundout in the 5th, and Santos singled in Booker, who had tripled, ahead of Montezuma's solo blast the next inning.
Montezuma was 3-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored.
IHCC starter Kawlewski gave up six hits and three runs, only one earned, in his five innings. He struck out three and walked one. Hinson loaded the bases with one out in the 6th, then promptly retired the next five batters in a row.
Indian Hills pitchers showed great control, walking nine in the entire series.
The Reivers got off to a quick 6-1 lead after an inning-and-a-half in the series opener and halted a late IHCC rally.
Starter Christian Torres lasted only two innings for the Falcons, giving up five hits and six earned runs. Jesse Anderson faced just one batter over the minimum over the next four innings, permitting only a solo home run. Jose Marin pitched around a leadoff single in his lone inning.
Caleb Ratzman walked and scored on Montezuma's grounder for the first IHCC run. The Falcons were then scoreless until they scored two runs in both the 5th and 6th innings. Edgar Lebron had an RBI triple and Ratzman a run-scoring single in the 5th; one run scored on a throwing error and another on a bases-loaded walk to Lebron the next inning, but the Falcons couldn't get any closer.
Iowa Western regained the tie for first they had when the series started in Saturday's nightcap.
The lone run for Indian Hills was scored by Jake Lewis, who singled and eventually came around on a double-play grounder. IHCC had nine hits with Ratzman and Lewis getting two each.
The Reivers scored five runs against IHCC starter Nick Green and three more off a total of four relievers. Only three of their eight runs were earned.
Indian Hills won five-of-eight in the season series with the Reivers and is 35-14 overall. Before wrapping up the regular season in Marshalltown, Indian Hills will go to Southeastern on Tuesday and host Iowa Central Wednesday for a pair of single games.