Marshalltown, IA—Trailing by four runs late in the game, the Marshalltown Community College baseball team rallied from behind to defeat the Iowa Central Community College Tritons 6-5 on a walk-off base hit from Engel Rosario (Santo Domingo, DR/Cenapec) in the bottom of the ninth. Todd Oberthien (Solon, IA/Solon) was credited with the win.
After a sluggish start to the game, the Tigers strung together five runs in three consecutive innings to tie the game at five in the eighth. Oberthien retired all four batters he faced between the eighth and ninth innings to set the Tigers up for a shot to win the game.
After two quick outs to start the bottom of the ninth, Hunter Embray (Knoxville, IA/Twin Cedars) drew a walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch to move in to scoring position. Embray was relieved on the base path by Pedro Lopez (Naples, FL/Naples). With a full count on him and the winning run in sight, Rosario drove a line drive over the head of the Triton centerfielder to give the Tigers their second walk-off hit of the year and snap an eight-game losing streak.
Jorge Michael (Caracas, Venezuela/Claret) made his third start of the year on the mound and struck out three batters in six innings of work. The sophomore allowed four earned runs on five hits.
Anderson Villarroel (U.E Santisima Caridad) recorded two hits and two RBI on the day while Bennett Lopez (Dorado, PR/PRBA) had two hits and two stolen bases in the win. The two currently lead the Tigers in batting average, with Villarroel edging Lopez .347 to .346.
The Tritons got on the board early with a run in the top of the first inning, but Michael settled down to keep Iowa Central scoreless for the next three innings. After the Tritons plated two in the top of the fifth, MCC got one run back in the bottom of the sixth as Rosario put the ball in play to score Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center Point-Urbana) who led off the inning with a single.
The Tigers added two more in the seventh as Bryan Ventura (Carolina, PR/Next Level America) singled to score Colin Schroeder (Grimes, IA/Dallas Center-Grimes) and Bennett Lopez doubled to score Holtz.
A heads up base-running play from Austin Gridley (Fairfield, IA/Fairfield), making his first start in the outfield this season, in the bottom of the eighth allowed two runs to score on an infield single from Villarroel, tying the game at five and setting the stage for Rosario's late-game heroics.
The Tigers travel to Ellsworth Community College for a nonconference doubleheader at 2:00 PM on Thursday afternoon.
