Vero Beach, FL—A three-run fourth inning, backed by a strong pitching performance led the Marshalltown Community College Baseball team to a 5-3 victory over Kirkwood Community College at Holman Stadium inside Historic Dodgertown Tuesday night. Freshman Noel Diaz (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/CENAPEC) earned the win for the Tigers.
MCC earned its first win over the Eagles in its last five attempts to improve to 9-6 on the year. The Tigers have won two out of its three games at Historic Dodgertown since opening play on Monday afternoon.
Diaz earned his second-career win for the Tigers after striking out five batters and allowing just two earned runs in six innings of work. Freshman Juan Carlos Gonzalez (Piedra Blanca, Dominican Republic/Salome Urena de Henrriquez) earned his second save of the year after pitching a scoreless seventh inning.
The MCC offense was paced by the middle of the order as Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center-Point Urbana) went 3-4 with two runs and Enmanuel Lopez (Santiago, Dominican Republic/Prepara) was 3-4 with a run scored and an RBI.
Holtz opened the day with a two out single in the first inning and after stealing second, the sophomore scored on a single from Lopez for the initial run. Kirkwood evened the game with a run of their own in the bottom half of the first.
An RBI-single from Bryan Ventura (Carolina, PR/Continental) scored Hunter Embray (Knoxville, IA/Twin Cedars) in the second to regain the lead for the Tigers. Kirkwood answered with a run in the second and another in the third to take their first lead of the night.
MCC's big inning came in the fifth as the Tigers took advantage of multiple Eagle miscues. Holtz tripled to lead off the inning and scored on a wild pitch and Lopez singled and scored on an error on an infield grounder. Luis Duran (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Centro de Estudio Espaillat) who reached by error, scored on the next at bat as Embray also reached on an error to give MCC a 5-3 lead.
Diaz retired the Eagles in order in the sixth thanks to a heads up double-play from Lopez. Gonzalez entered the game to start the bottom of the seventh against the Eagles. With two outs Kirkwood attempted to score after an errant play at first, but freshman Joel Rosauer (Elk Run Heights, IA/Waterloo East) was alert and threw a dart to home plate to end the game.
MCC wraps up its trip to Florida with a pair of games on Wednesday morning at Historic Dodgertown. The Tigers will take on the University of Connecticut-Avery Point at 8:00 AM (CDT_ and Massasoit Community College at 11:00 AM.
