The Indianola baseball and softball squads each swept Newton in a pair of Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheaders Friday evening, softball winning 10-0 and 10-0 in a pair of six inning contests, and baseball winning 2-1 and 13-3 in five innings in a game heard live on 94.3 KNIA.
The #7 softball dominated the Cardinals, scoring four runs in the bottom of the 2nd in game one highlighted by a Hanna Graham single and Kyra Robins double, adding more runs throughout the game on hits from Izzy Sloan, Brynn Ortlund, and Jordyn Gripp and ended the game early.
Game two saw Graham get the Indians off to a good start with a two-RBI single in the second, then plated six in the third with hits from Kiley Kindelspire, Gripp, and Mara Bishop. Indianola improves to 10-5 on the season and 7-1 in LHC play, and will play in a tournament in Davenport today.
The Indianola baseball squad were in a pitchers duel in the first game of the doubleheader, giving up a Newton run in the first and tying the game in the bottom of the inning after a Brady Blake single and an RBI sacrifice fly from Bennett Brueck, and that score would hold all the way to the bottom of the ninth inning when Casey Stecker hit a walkoff single for the Indians to pick up the win.
After having players out due to injuries picked up in game one, the Indians bats woke up in game two, scoring runs in the first off of hits from Stecker and Noah Johnston, and added another three in the second with a Stecker sacrifice fly and an Andrew DeWall two-RBI double. Newton got three back in the fourth, but the Indians responded with RBI hits from Luke Rockhold and Daniel Kuebler to lead 7-3. Indianola then scored six runs in the fifth, taking advantage of Cardinals mistakes punctuated by a walkoff two-RBI double by Caden Boyd to end the game early.
Head coach Jon Fitzpatrick tells KNIA Sports he was happy with the way the guys stepped up in the wake of injuries in the second game, and that’s what needs to happen for good teams to win games.
The Indians improve to 13-6 overall and 6-2 in conference play, and they will host Norwalk on Monday.