Marshalltown, IA—Two solid outings from the Marshalltown Community College baseball pitching staff lifted the Tigers to two Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) victories against Muscatine Community College at Shawn Williams Field on Sunday. The Tigers earned a 7-1 win in the opener and followed up with a 5-0 win in game two to take three of four from the Cardinals this weekend.
Austin Gridley (Fairfield, IA/Fairfield) went five full innings before allowing a base hit in the opener as the freshman recorded his first-career win. Gridley pitched 5.1 innings, allowing just one earned run on the one hit while striking out two batters.
Joel Lopez (Dorado, PR/Jose S. Alegria) bested Gridley's performance in the nightcap of Sunday's twin bill, going all seven innings for a complete game shutout. Lopez allowed just two hits, a third inning double and a fifth inning single. Facing just 24 batters, Lopez allowed only three Cardinals to reach base on the day as the freshman improved to 2-0 on the year after striking out four batters to just one walk.
Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center Point-Urbana) got things going in game one in the first inning with his first-career home run, a shot to right field, scoring Anderson Villarroel (Caracas, Venezuela/U.E. Santisima Caridad) for the early lead.
Holding on to a 2-1 lead entering the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers took advantage of a leadoff error from the Cardinals. Pedro Lopez (Naples, FL/Naples) doubled to bring home Bryan Ventura (Carolina, PR/Next Level America). Bennett Lopez (Dorado, PR/PRBA) scored Pedro Lopez and Villarroel with a one-out single and Ryan Thrasher (Sherwood Park, AB/St. Francis Xavier) singled to bring in two more runs for the 7-1 advantage.
Todd Oberthien (Solon, IA/Solon) pitched 1.2 innings of relief to limit the Cardinals and seal the victory for the Tigers.
Pedro Lopez finished the game with a triple and a double along with a run scored and an RBI.
Game two belonged to Joel Lopez from start to finish. A first-inning run from Villarroel was all the run support the southpaw needed. MCC plated two runs in the fourth, including an RBI-single from Ventura. MCC added two more in the fifth on a two-run single from Thrasher, scoring Holtz and Bennett Lopez to give MCC its third straight win.
Thrasher and Holtz each recorded two hits in the game.
With the shutout, Joel Lopez lowered his earned run average to 1.42 on the year. The freshman has allowed just one earned run in his last 21 innings of work.
The Tigers travel to Kirkwood Community College on Tuesday for a nonconference doubleheader with the Eagles. First pitch is set for 2:00 PM.
