Wrapping up the first slate of Little Hawkeye Conference regular season action Monday night, the Norwalk baseball team defeated Pella Christian 6-3 in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

Corbin Westerkamp put the Eagles on the scoreboard first with a solo home run to left field in the top of the first inning. The Warriors tied the game in the bottom of the frame after Jackson Campbell was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a single, and scored on a Pella Christian error off the bat of Caleb Ochanpaugh. The Eagles recapture the lead in the top of the second when Trevor Veenstra singled and came around to score on Lincoln Vander Molen base hit. 

Norwalk answered by taking a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the inning, as Aiden Kane and Dawson King scored on a fielder’s choice and a sacrifice bunt. The Warriors extended their lead to 5-2 as Aiden Harder singled home Ochanpaugh in the third inning and CJ Davis brought home Gabe Johnson with a base hit in the fifth inning. Pella Christian got a run back in the sixth when Luke Fynaardt tripled and his courtesy runner Johnson Morgan scored on a dropped third strike, but Harder would again drive in Ochanpaugh with a single in the bottom of the frame to give Norwalk the 6-3 victory. 

Runs have been hard to come by for the Warriors this season and head coach Chad Wiedmann credited his squad for stepping up in big moments in the game at the plate.

“Our hitters stepped up in clutch situations and drove in runs and made some things happen on the offensive end of things, which we’ve struggled a little bit with scoring runs throughout the year so far.”

Pella Christian head coach Chris Fynaardt said the message to his team after the loss was simply to be better prepared mentally.  

“Pretty bluntly the message was we just didn’t come to play tonight. I don’t know if we just kind of thought we were gonna roll tonight and we were taking things for granted, but we got to come more prepared to play than that.”

Norwalk improved to 5-12 overall and 3-6 in the conference and they’ll look to add to the win column tonight with a 7 p.m. game at Ankeny Centennial. Pella Christian fell to 12-6 on the season and 5-5 in the league and they have tonight off before looking to bounce back Wednesday night with a doubleheader at Grinnell.