Friday, May 27

IMS 11 – Lone Tree 7

Lone Tree 13 – IMS 4

In game one Friday night, the Lone Tree Lions took an early four run lead in the first inning after capitalizing on four walks and one hit surrendered by IMS pitcher Riley Hochstedler.  Lone Tree extended their lead to 7-0 by adding one in the second and two more runs in the 4th inning.  The IMS bats finally woke up in their half of the fifth, when lead-off hitter Jason Litwiller and Ethan Gingerich reached safely on back-to-back base on balls.  The bases would then become loaded for Cameron Gingerich whose sacrifice fly to right-field scored Litwiller to get the first run on the board for IMS.  Relief Pitcher Tanner Leyden and left-fielder Kyle Brinning came up with RBI singles, followed by a few wild pitches to cut the Lone Tree lead in the inning to 7-6.  Leyden shut the door on any further Lion offensive threats in the sixth inning which gave the opportunity for IMS to take over the lead in their half of the sixth.  Ethan Gingerich, Jackson Brokaw, and Riley Hochstedler each singled to start of the inning which led to five runs.  Tanner Leyden finished the seventh with his third consecutive shut-out inning to gather the win on the mound with his first varsity pitching victory as IMS came back from seven runs to win, 11-7.  

Ethan Gingerich, Riley Hochstedler, Kyle Brinning and Aaron Ockenfels each had two hits to lead the IMS offense. 

In the nightcap, Lone Tree did a nice job staying focused after a deflating defeat in the first game to put pressure on the IMS pitching staff and defense by gaining again an early lead when scoring two runs in the second and three runs in the third.  IMS came back in their half of the third as a one out walk by Jason Litwiller, followed by back-to-back singles by Ethan Gingerich and Jackson Brokaw and an RBI single by Cameron Gingerich cut the lead to 5-3.  However, the comeback was finally squashed when Lone Tree scored five runs in their fourth inning. The final score ended13-4. 

Leading the IMS offense was Jackson Brokaw with two hits and two RBIs and Ethan Gingerich had two hits and two runs scored. Freshman Dallas Nye suffered the loss on the mound while freshman Tanner Leyden and Junior Nathan Peterson did a good job coming into relief. 

IMS moves to 3-1 in the SEISC. 

Saturday, May 28

Denison-Schleswig 15 – IMS 5 (6 innings)

Consolation: IMS 22 – Clarion-Goldfield 3 (4innings)

IMS traveled to Waterloo Saturday to play in a four-team tournament at Riverfront Stadium, home of the Waterloo Bucks. 

In the first game, IMS took on Denison-Schleswig, located in far West Iowa.  After a late night of playing, the defense and offense struggled to get on track as D-S quickly took a nine run lead through the first three innings.  IMS committed seven errors and allowed seven hits in the game then showed a slight spark in the fourth inning when Cameron Gingerich reach based with an RBI single, scoring Brent Brenneman.  Gingerich and Kyle Brinning also scored in the inning, but any further come back was eliminated when Denison made the score 15-5 in the sixth inning giving them the win.

In the consolation game, IMS faced Clarion-Goldfield.  It appeared the Maroon and Black was in store for another tough battle.  In the first inning, IMS got on top early when a lead-off walk by Jason Litwiller would later score him off a Cameron Gingerich sacrifice fly.  However, in C-G’s half of the first, they would use two fielding errors to score three runs and take a 3-1 lead. 

The IMS bats finally awoke and the hit parade started in the IMS second inning when Mitch Hermiston got the inning started with a single and later scored on an Ethan Gingerich fielder’s choice.  Riley Hochstedler also singled along with a Kyle Brinning double and another Hermiston single in the inning took back the lead and broke open the game as IMS scores 11 runs in the inning to take a 12-3 lead.  IMS added three more runs in the third.  In the fourth inning, Jackson Brokaw put the final stamp on the 22-3 victory as he blasted a homerun over the left field wall for a grand slam. Cameron Gingerich earned the victory on the mound for his second win of the season allowing three hits, alongside one  walk and striking out two.   

IMS moves to 4-2 on the season and next hosts two non-conference opponents, 2A ranked Van Buren on Thursday evening in a JV/V double-header followed by 3A opponent Washington on Friday evening in another JV/V double-header.