Defensive miscues and timely hitting led Pella Christian’s baseball team to a split with Pella High on Wednesday.

The Eagles were able to get a late lead on an RBI single in the fifth from Isaac VanderHart. Pella High tried to answer in the bottom half, getting a runner to third with no outs, but failed to bring the tying run home. Kyle Sneller earned the win for PC, while Mac Sarver pitched the final two outs to record his first save of the season. Eagles’ Coach Nate Johnson says besides the fact they topped an extremely talented 3A school, he was happy to get big points counted towards postseason seeding.

It was all Grant Judkins in the nightcap, as the Little Dutch pounded out 12 hits in a 7 – 1 win to salvage the split, in a game heard live on KNIAKRLS.com. Judkins struck out nine and allowed just two hits, and did not record a fly-ball out until the seventh inning. He also had an RBI triple in the fourth, while Tyler Hillman led the charge with three hits, three runs scored, and an RBI. After clutch hitting eluded them for most of the first eight innings of yesterday’s festivities, Pella Coach Jesse Jablonski wants to see more contributions up and down the line-up moving forward. Pella High is 18 – 6 overall and 12 – 1 in league play; Pella Christian has a 7 – 7 conference record with an overall mark of 14 – 9. Pella is off until Friday for a game at Ottumwa, and the Eagles return to the diamond tonight at Colfax-Mingo.