Muscatine, IA—The Marshalltown Community College baseball team ran into two dominant pitching performances in the 2015 NJCAA Region XI Division I Tournament as the Tigers' season came to a close on Friday at Tom Bruner Field. MCC dropped its opening contest 4-0 to No. 2 seed Indian Hills Community College before No. 4 seed Muscatine Community College rallied for a 3-2 win to eliminate the Tigers.
The Region XI Tournament began Friday, but not without hassle. Originally scheduled for a 2:00 PM start, the Tigers and Indian Hills did not start until 8:00 PM due to rain throughout the day in the Muscatine area. Friday's opening game between top-seeded Iowa Western Community College and Muscatine began at 4:30 PM and ended with Iowa Western rallying for a 5-3 win.
Freshman Austin Gridley (Fairfield, IA/Fairfield) got the nod on the mound for the Tigers in game one. After tossing a scoreless first inning, Indian Hills pushed a run across in the second inning, but Gridley was able to control the damage and leave the bases loaded.
Pedro Lopez (Naples, FL/Naples) singled in the second frame and Hunter Embray (Knoxville, IA/Twin Cedars) added a base hit in the third, but MCC was unable to plate a run as the Falcons opened the doors in the fourth with three runs to take a 4-0 lead.
Indian Hills starting pitcher Travis Neubeck pitched a complete game against the Tigers, limiting MCC to six hits and no runs scored. Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center Point-Urbana) doubled in the top of the ninth but was left stranded to end the game.
Relief pitchers Wyatt Stark (Mt. Pleasant, IA/Fairfield) and Todd Oberthien (Solon, IA/Solon) held the Falcons scoreless over the final 4.1 innings.
With MCC's first game lasting over two and a half hours, the elimination game between the Tigers and Muscatine began at 11:00 PM under the lights. After enduring a lengthy rain delay and a hard-fought battle in game one, the Tigers found the energy to take an early 1-0 lead over Muscatine. Anderson Villarroel (Caracas, Venezuela/U.E. Santisima Caridad) opened the bottom of the first with a bunt single, followed by an infield single from Holtz. Bennett Lopez's (Dorado, PR/PRBA) ground out to the right side allowed Villarroel to cross the plate.
Starting pitcher Joel Lopez (Dorado, PR/Jose S. Alegria) expanded on his previous outing, a one-hit shutout on May 3 at Indian Hills, striking out five batters in his first two innings of work against Muscatine. The Cardinals eventually found their way on the board with a double and a single in the fourth inning to tie the game at one.
MCC pushed back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the fourth as Alexis Melendez (Trujillo Alto, PR/IBAHS) singled and reached second on a sacrifice bunt from Pedro Lopez. A single to right field from Colin Schroeder (Grimes, IA/Dallas Center-Grimes) put MCC back on top, 2-1.
The lead was short-lived as Muscatine scored a run in the top of the fifth despite Joel Lopez continuing a strong performance on the hill. Joel Lopez exited the game in the seventh inning and handed the reins to Thomas Sanchez (Onalska, WI/Holmen) who was able to strand a runner on third base to end the frame.
In the top of the eighth, the Cardinals got to Sanchez through a series of walks and plated the go-ahead run to take a 3-2 lead over the Tigers.
Muscatine's starting pitcher Jay Peters aimed to replicate Neubeck's performance against the Tigers as the Cardinals' ace struck out 13 MCC batters through eight innings of play, allowing just seven baserunners along the way. Peters went the distance to eliminate the Tigers from the Region XI Tournament.
Friday's final game concluded at 1:34 AM. Indian Hills and Iowa Western will play in the winner's bracket at 11:00 AM Saturday with the loser taking on Muscatine at 2:00 PM.
MCC finishes the season with a 20-33 overall record.
