Neosho, MO—On a blustery day at the ballpark, the Marshalltown Community College Baseball team was able to split a pair of games with No. 17 Crowder College on Sunday, taking two games from the Roughriders in the four-game weekend series. MCC held off Crowder 10-8 in nine innings in game one and the home team dropped the Tigers 17-7 in five innings in game two.
Sunday afternoon proved to be a different environment for both teams compared to the calm weather of Saturday afternoon's pitcher's dual as the wind was blowing straight out to left field for most of the day.
After a 1-2-3 inning for both teams in game one, the Tigers took full advantage of the second inning, scoring six runs off of the Roughriders starting pitcher. Sophomore Hunter Embray (Knoxville, IA/Twin Cedars) delivered an RBI-double to start the scoring and Kaleb Hanks (Sioux City, IA/Sioux City East) added a run-scoring bunt for a base hit. Bennett Lopez (Dorado, Puerto Rico/PRBA) connected on the big hit of the inning, a two-run single to extend the lead.
The Roughrider offense came alive in the bottom half of the second frame, scoring four runs. Each team traded runs in the third with Embray providing another RBI-double. A RBI-single from Enmanuel Lopez (Santiago, Dominican Republic / Prepara) extended the Tiger lead to 8-5. Freshman Rogelio Munoz (Cotui, Dominican Republic/Colegio Santo Domingo) relieved starting pitcher Austin Gridley in the third inning and quieted the Roughrider bats to maintain the lead for MCC.
A day after shutting down the Roughriders to earn the save, freshman Juan Carlos Gonzalez (Piedra Blanca, Dominican Republic/Salome Urena de Hernriquez) relieved Munoz in the sixth. The freshman allowed three consecutive baserunners as Crowder tied the game at eight.
Both teams went down in order in the seventh and eighth frames in the extra inning affair. Luis Duran (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Centro de Estudio Espaillat) began the ninth inning with a base hit and came around to score on a Christian Jaworski (Bloomfield Hills, MI/Bloomfield Hills) single. Jaworski added a run on a wild pitch later in the inning. Gonzalez, who had retired nine batters in a row entering the ninth, allowed just one baserunner to earn his second career win for the Tigers. The freshman struck out seven batters in four innings.
Duran led four Tigers with multi-hit games in the opener, recording a career-high four hits in five at bats while scoring three runs. Embray, Bennett Lopez, Enmanuel Lopez, and Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center Point-Urbana) all added two hits.
Game two looked to be in favor of the Tigers once again as MCC plated the first four batters of the inning. A two-run single from Diogen Ceballos (La Vega, Dominican Republic/Liceo la Romana) plated two runs to put the Roughriders on their heels once again. Crowder had little trouble responding, scoring one run in the first before adding five runs in both the second and third innings.
Joel Rosauer (Elk Run Heights, IA/Waterloo East) helped cut into the deficit with an RBI-single in the third. Holtz scored Bennett Lopez on a RBI-single in the fourth and Tony Salato (Knoxville, IA/Knoxville) brought in Holtz with a single to cut the Crowder lead to 11-7. The Roughriders pulled away in the fifth inning, scoring six runs off of the MCC bullpen to end the game by way of run-rule.
Ceballos finished the game 3-3 at the plate and Bennett Lopez went 3-4. Freshman Noel Diaz (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/CENAPEC) was tagged with the loss.
Next up for the Tigers is a trip to Vero Beach, FL to take part in the Historic Dodgertown Invitational beginning on March 14.
