Both games of the Indianola and Pella baseball doubleheader came down to the final innings Wednesday evening with the Indians earning the sweep winning 5-3 in game one and 7-5 in game two heard live on 94.3 KNIA.
The Indians got ahead 2-0 in game one with RBI hits from Mark Pepper and Connor Howard, but Pella would tie the score at two in the fourth with hits from Josh Miller and Aidan Pollock. The Little Dutch earned a brief lead after scoring a run on a wild pitch in the sixth, but a Bennett Brueck two-RBI single put the Indians back in front in the bottom half of the inning with Howard adding another insurance run to win it.
Game two saw Pella jump out to an early lead 1-0 after Nick DeJong scored on a Pollock groundout, but Indianola scored five unanswered in the next three innings scoring on a pickoff play, a sacrifice fly, a balk, a wild pitch, and an RBI hit from Jack Strong to lead 5-1. The Little Dutch started a comeback in the sixth getting a pair of runs on an RBI single from Cole Hillman, but the Indians would immediately get the runs back with an RBI hit from Carter Erickson and scoring another on a pickoff play throw down to second with a runner on third to make it 7-3 going into the final inning.
With one out needing four runs, the Little Dutch got back to back walks and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases, then Quinn Rhamy drove in two with a single up the middle to cut the deficit to two. After another walk to load the bases, Brady Blake came on in relief for the Indians to get the final out via strikeout. Indians head coach Jon Fitzpatrick said while he would have preferred his team to not be in the situation in the first place, he is glad they were able to come together to pull out the win.
“Tonight we did a really good job of slowing the game down when it’s sped up on us in the past. We allowed the game to come to us and not just speed things up. They are getting there and they are doing a really nice job.”
Pella drops to 11-7 on the season and 6-5 in conference play, and will next match up with Norwalk tomorrow at home. Indianola is now 14-5 and 7-4 and goes out of conference play tonight hosting Centerville.