Fort Dodge, IA—The Marshalltown Community College Baseball team used an array of pitchers along with some timely hitting to beat Iowa Central Community College 5-2 on Tuesday afternoon. The Tigers improve to 26-16 overall on the year with the win.
Sophomore Austin Gridley (Fairfield, IA/Fairfield) got the start on the mound for the Tigers and allowed just one run in the fourth inning while Trevor Swartz (Fremont, IA/Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont), tossed two scoreless innings of relief to earn his third win of the season. JD Barr (South Sioux City, NE/Bishop Heelan Catholic) earned the save in the ninth inning, his league-leading fifth of the season.
Freshman Joel Rosauer (Elk Run Heights, IA/Waterloo East) paced the offense with three hits, his third three-hit game in his last four contests. Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center Point-Urbana) added two hits and two RBI in the win for the Tigers.
Taking on the Tritons for the second time in a week, Gridley held the home team scoreless through the first three innings of play. The Tigers struck first with a run in the top of the fourth inning as Diogen Ceballos (La Vega, Dominican Republic/Liceo la Romana) scored on a groundout from Luis Duran (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Centro de Estudio Espaillat).
Iowa Central evened the game up with a run in the bottom half and the game stayed even at one over the next two frames. MCC broke the game open with four runs in the seventh inning. Hunter Embray (Knoxville, IA/Twin Cedars) and Kaleb Hanks (Sioux City, IA/Sioux City East) each singled and scored on RBI from Tony Salato (Knoxville, IA/Knoxville) and Rosauer. Holtz provided the insurance hit with a two-run double to left for the 5-1 MCC lead.
Swartz held the Tritons scoreless through the sixth and seventh innings and freshman JJ Stephens (Sioux City, IA/Sioux City East) struck out the side in the eighth. After scoring a run in the ninth and putting two runners on, Barr came in and induced a fly out to end the game.
The Tiger pitching staff struck out 12 batters in the game, with five coming from Gridley, three more from Swartz, and four from Stephens in just 1.2 innings of work.
Next up for MCC is a trip to Ellsworth Community College at 3:00 PM on Thursday afternoon. The Tigers defeated the Panthers 14-4 at Shawn Williams Field on March 22.
