Marshalltown, IA—The Marshalltown Community College Baseball team swept No. 7 Iowa Western Community College at home on Friday afternoon, dropping the Reivers 7-4 in the opener before a 4-1 victory in game two.
MCC used a five-run fifth inning in large part due to a Bryan Ventura (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Continental) two-run double. Freshman Juan Carlos Gonzalez (Piedra Blanca, Dominican Republic/Salome Urena de Henrriquez) earned the win while JD Barr (South Sioux City, NE/Bishop Heelan Catholic) earned the save for the Tigers. With his sixth save of the season, Barr set the school-record for saves in a season and currently leads the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) in saves.
Freshman Diogen Ceballos (La Vega, Dominican Republic/Liceo la Romana) pitched a complete game in the nightcap to shut down the nation's top-ranked offense.
The Tigers improve to 28-16 on the year and 10-8 in ICCAC play to remain in second place. The first-place Reivers fall to 37-12 and 14-4 in league play.
Game one saw the Reivers take a 3-0 lead through three innings of play. MCC got on the board on an RBI-single from Hunter Embray (Knoxville, IA/Twin Cedars) to bring in Ceballos. The Tigers erupted for five runs in the fifth as MCC took advantage of a pair of errors in the frame. Along with Ventura's double, Luis Duran (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Centro de Estudio Espaillat) contributed an RBI-single.
Sophomore Logan Holtz (Urbana, IA/Center Point-Urbana) delivered a solo home run in the seventh for an insurance run as Barr pitched the final 1.1 innings to set the program record.
Bennett Lopez (Dorado, Puerto Rico/PRBA), Holtz, Ceballos, and Embray all had two hits in the win. Gonzalez, making his first start in two weeks, struck out five batters while allowing just five hits to improve to 7-3 on the year.
The Tigers were first to get on the board in game two, and made a statement doing so. MCC put up three runs in the second frame as Ventura drew a bases-loaded walk and Lopez followed up with a two-out, two-run single for the early lead.
Holtz scored in the third on a double from Duran while Ceballos cruised on the mound. The former NJCAA Division I National Pitcher of the Week held the Reivers, who entered the game with a NJCAA-best .416 batting average, scoreless through six innings. The freshman allowed a run in the seventh, but got a pair of batters to ground out back to the mound for the complete game victory.
Lopez and Embray added two more hits in the nightcap for the Tigers. Ceballos struck out six batters in seven innings to improve to 3-1 on the year.
Originally scheduled for a Saturday/Sunday series, the two teams will make up the final doubleheader at Shawn Williams Field on Monday afternoon at 2:00 PM.
