Marshalltown, IA—The Marshalltown Community College baseball team suffered a pair of defeats to Kirkwood Community College on Wednesday afternoon at Shawn Williams Field. The Eagles took game one 11-5 and dropped the Tigers 2-0 with a pair of late runs in the nightcap.
Freshman Peyton Stephens (Carlisle, IA/Carlisle) went 3-3 with his first-career home run in game one to spark a rally for the Tigers midway through the contest. Sophomore JJ Stephens (Sioux City, IA/Sioux City East) tossed a gem in game two, going six innings while striking out four batters with just one earned run.
Kirkwood jumped on the Tigers early in game one, building an 8-0 lead through two and a half innings of play. Stephens ignited the offense with a leadoff single in the third inning and scored on an RBI-single from Enmanuel Lopez (Santiago, Dominican Republic/Prepara). Max McCay (Carlisle, IA/Carlisle) added another run in the frame to cut into the deficit.
The Tigers' big inning came in the fourth as Stephens lifted a shot over the left center wall for a three-run home run to score Tony Salato (Knoxville, IA/Knoxville and Jose Mieses (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Prepara). The rally stopped there as Kirkwood added three more runs over the final two innings to earn the game one win.
Salato and Diogen Ceballos (La Vega, Dominican Republic/Liceo La Romana) added two hits each for the Tigers. Greg Glass (Waterloo, IA/Waterloo Columbus) worked 3.2 innings of relief and allowed just one earned run on one hit and struck out five.
Game two saw a pitcher's duel as Stephens cruised through the opening innings against the Eagles. The sophomore got out of a bases loaded jam with a strikeout to end the third inning and held Kirkwood scoreless until a run in the sixth.
The MCC offense had a pair of runners in scoring position in the first inning and two more in the fifth, but the production never led to a run as MCC dropped the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader.
Mieses finished the game with a pair of hits for the Tigers, his third multi-hit game in his last four contests to bump his season batting average to an even .400.
The Tigers travel to Southeastern Community College for a single nine inning game on March 29.
Freshman Peyton Stephens unloaded on a 2-0 pitch in today's opening game for @MCCTigers_BB vs. Kirkwood for his first-career home run pic.twitter.com/5DISPFMsma
— Marshalltown Tigers (@MCC_ATH) March 23, 2017
