Pella and Norwalk wrapped up the Little Hawkeye Conference baseball season on Thursday night with a hard-fought battle heard live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3). The visiting Dutch never trailed and held off a late Warrior rally to win 4-3 in the season-series rubber match.

All of the scoring took place in the third and sixth innings. Pella plated two unearned runs off Norwalk starter Aidan Harder in the top of the third, taking a 2-0 lead on Teagan Hoekstra’s two-out, two-strike, two-RBI single. The Warriors made it 2-1 in the home half of the third as Rhylie Schmidt and Colton Moore ignited the inning with one-out singles and Harder drew a bases-loaded walk.

The score remained 2-1 until the top of the sixth, when RBI singles by Samuel Carlson and Anderson Schirm gave the Dutch their largest lead at 4-1. Norwalk answered right back, cutting the margin to 4-3 as Payton Nichols, Briley Purcell, Schmidt and Moore all singled against Pella starter Nathan Carey.

Dutch reliever Hayes Lautenbach escaped a bases-loaded jam to end the sixth and Isaiah Kettler posted a dominant save in the seventh, striking out the Warriors’ 3-4-5 hitters – all looking – in succession. Carlson and Schirm both had three-hit games to lead Pella offensively and Carey pitched 5 ⅔ innings to improve his record to 4-2. Harder took the loss, striking out seven in five frames. Schmidt and Moore accounted for four of Norwalk’s seven hits.

Pella improved to 20-7 overall and finished 14-4 in the Little Hawkeye to place second. Their next game is Monday night at Washington. Norwalk dropped to 13-15 overall and finished 10-8 in the conference for fourth place. The Warriors will host Newman Catholic on Tuesday night.