Marshalltown, IA— Early deficits cost the Marshalltown Community College baseball team two games at home on Monday afternoon, falling to No. 12 Iowa Western Community College 14-3 and 13-2 at Shawn Williams Field.
The Tigers (14-21/4-8) suffered their fourth-straight loss to the Reivers (31-10/11-1), ranked No. 12 in the latest NJCAA Division I baseball poll after Iowa Western swept the weekend Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) series).
Iowa Western built a 9-0 lead through the first two innings of game one, sinking MCC's chance at a weekend split. The Tigers managed three runs in the third inning on an RBI-single from Tony Salato (Knoxville, IA/Knoxville) and a two-run single from Luis Duran (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Centro de Estudio Espaillat), but the marginal deficit proved to be too much in the opener.
Despite a 1-0 lead in the first inning for the Tigers after Diogen Ceballos (La Vega, Dominican Republic/Liceo la Romana) scored Duran, the Reivers took advantage of multiple MCC errors for a 6-1 lead through the fourth inning. Sophomore Kaleb Hanks (Sioux City, IA/Sioux City East) delivered a solo home run in the sixth to ease the Tiger woes, but the series finale belonged to Iowa Western.
Ceballos took the loss in game two, but stood out at the plate throughout the weekend, going 7-10 for MCC.
The Tigers take a break from conference action with a single nine inning game vs. Southeastern Community College at 3:00 PM Tuesday afternoon.
