IMS Seniors Jason Litwiller with parents Jon & Becky, Malachi Bontrager with grandparents Norman & Ruth Ann, Riley Hochstedler with parents Doyle & Becky, Jackson Brokaw with parents Joel & Karma, Lukas Yoder with parents Randy and Paula, Marshall Schrock with mom Sherry, Ethan Gingerich with parents Jim & Lois.

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Seven seniors took the field for their final regular season games Friday night against Highland in a match-up which turned out to be for second place in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference.  Sophomore Cameron Gingerich took the hill for the Maroon and Black against sophomore Jake Hootman.  Last  year it was Hootman that came out on top against IMS but now it was Cameron’s turn.  Both pitchers found their grove early and often in the first four innings as Gingerich retired 12 of the first 13 hitters he faced while Hootman just about matched him retiring 12 of 14. 

Highland would strike the first blow in the top half of the 5th inning, when D. Laroche smacked an 0-2 fastball over the right field fence for the 1-0 lead.  It looked like Highland may extend this lead in their half of the sixth but a suicide squeeze was defended perfectly by Cameron to nail down the runner coming home from third who reached there on a one out triple.  The momentum carried over to IMS offensively when Kyle Brinning came off the bench to reach base on a hard hit ball through the shortstop’s glove to lead off the 6th inning.  Senior Malachi Bontrager came back into the ball game to run for Brinning and stole second base to get into scoring position.  Ethan Gingerich would follow with an RBI single to drive in Malachi and tie up the score at 1-1.  With Ethan now at third base with one out,  Senior Jackson Brokaw lays down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to score Ethan and give IMS the 2-1 lead. Cameron took it over from there on the mound in the seventh as he retired the Huskies in order to seal the 2-1 victory.  Cameron finished with five strikeouts and allowed only two lone hits. 

After the recognition of senior players and parents, the IMS offense finally broke out in good fashion as they knocked in four runs in the bottom of the half, highlighted by a Cameron Gingerich 2 RBI single, a sacrifice fly by Jason Litwiller, and a RBI double by Levi Schrock.  IMS would add to their early lead in the second inning, scoring six runs in that inning highlighted by another RBI single by Cameron Gingerich and this time a two RBI double to centerfield by Jason Litwiller.  Jackson Brokaw and Marshall Schrock would score three times each while Ethan Gingerich, Cameron Gingerich, and Jason Litwiller each had two hits.  Marshall Schrock also doubled for IMS. 

The two wins puts IMS overall record at 14-12 and 11-5 in the SEISC, good for second place.  IMS will next compete in District play on July 14th at IMS as they have a first round bye and will take on the winner of New London vs. Lone Tree, a district match-up in which IMS will also host on Tuesday, July 12th.