Centerville, IA—Behind a strong pitching performance from freshman Juan Carlos Gonzalez (Piedra Blanca, Dominican Republic/Salome Urena de Henrriquez), the Marshalltown Community College Baseball team advanced in the Region XI Baseball Tournament with a 1-0 win over Indian Hills Community College on Friday night. The Tigers will play top-seeded Iowa Western Community College at 11:00 AM Saturday morning.
Despite a four hour rain delay, the No. 2 seed Tigers were able to defeat the third-seeded Falcons for the sixth time this year, including four of those wins by identical 1-0 victories. MCC will square off against Iowa Western after the Reivers defeated No. 4 seed Muscatine Community College 11-1 on Friday.
Gonzalez was dominant throughout the day as the freshman earned his eighth win of the season, setting the single season school record for wins by a pitcher. Gonzalez struck out seven batters in six innings of work, his sixth career game of at least seven strikeouts for the Tigers.
MCC manufactured the only run it needed in the third inning. Sophomore Bryan Ventura (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Continental) drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on a double from Enmanuel Lopez (Santiago, Dominican Republic/Prepara). With two outs, freshman Diogen Ceballos (La Vega, Dominican Republic/Liceo la Romana) collected an infield single and the speedy Ventura was able to cross the plate for the game's only run.
While the Falcon hitters managed to do some damage on the offensive end, Gonzalez kept his composure and kept the opposition off the board. Indian Hills loaded the bases in the fourth with no outs, but Gonzalez carved up the hitters with three straight strikeouts to end the inning. Indian Hills loaded the bases once again in the sixth but to no avail as Gonzalez got out of trouble once again.
Fellow freshman Noel Diaz (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/CENAPEC) took the mound for the seventh inning and maintained the shutout for the Tigers. MCC's primary closer JD Barr (South Sioux City, Nebraska/Bishop Heelan Catholic) entered with two outs in the eighth and two runners on but managed to get a fly out to end the inning.
Barr held on to the ball for the ninth inning and sat the Falcons down in order, ending the game with a strikeout to earn his ninth save of the season.
All four of the Tigers' hits came from Lopez and Ceballos who each recorded a pair.
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