Marshalltown, IA—A pair of late home runs from Ryan Thrasher (Sherwood Park, AB/St. Francis Xavier) and Ty Russell (Victoria, BC/Lambrick Park) helped snap a five-game losing streak to the Des Moines Area Community College Bears in the Tigers' home opener on Tuesday afternoon with an 8-4 victory. MCC dropped game two of the twinbill 13-3.
The win gave the Tigers (14-19) their first victory over the visiting Bears (21-10) since a 7-4 victory on March 23, 2011. The win also gave MCC a five-game winning streak, the team's longest of the 2014 season.
While the MCC offense was late to get started, freshman Julio Batista (San Juan, PR) kept the Bears scoreless through four innings of play, allowing just two hits during the stretch. As has been the theme lately for the surging Tigers, it was the long ball that powered the offense as Ryan Thrasher delivered a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning to put MCC up 4-0.
After two straight singles to start the inning, Alexis Melendez walked to load the bases. Thrasher came to the plate and drove a pitch to right center to spark the Tigers with his third home run of the year. DMACC was able to tie the game with a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth off of reliever Kyle Herrick (Adel, IA/Adel-Desoto-Minburn) to tie the game at four.
The Tigers wasted no time in getting back on top as Melendez led off the bottom of the sixth with a double to right center. The catcher was lifted for a pinch runner in Colin Schroeder (Grimes, IA/Dallas Center-Grimes) who proved to be the winning run, scoring on a wild pitch with two outs. Russell put the game out of reach with a three-run shot to right center on a 2-1 count, scoring Austin Allen (Milo, IA/Southeast Warren) and Pedro Lopez (Naples, FL/Palmetto Ridge). John Bloom (Laurel, IA/East Marshall) pitched a scoreless seventh, his third straight appearance without allowing a run, to give the Tigers their sixth straight win.
Russell finished the game 3-4 at the plate and along with game two on Tuesday, is batting .555 (10-18) over his last seven games. Lopez, Bennett Mann (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown), and Aneudis Sandoval (Manati, PR/Fernando Callejo) each picked up two hits to pace the 12-hit attack. Herrick was credited with the win to improve to 3-3 on the year.
The Bears jumped out early in the nightcap, scoring three unearned runs in the first off of starting pitcher Schyler Kane (Pella, IA/Pella). The Tigers got a run back in the bottom of the inning from Allen but DMACC went up 4-1 with a run in the second. Allen delivered an RBI single in the bottom half of the frame to score Sandoval and Thrasher brought the game to within one after scoring on a single, but that was all the offense the Tigers could muster as DMACC scored at least two runs in each of the next four innings.
Sandoval led the Tigers in the loss going 2-3 at the plate with a run scored.
MCC continues its home-stand with a nonconference doubleheader against Riverland Community College at 2:00 PM tomorrow afternoon at Shawn Williams Field.
