Season Ends in Title Game of Region Tourney

Ottumwa -- The Indian Hills softball team couldn't duplicate its success in the final regular season games against Iowa Western when it met the Reivers in the Region 11 tournament and IWCC took home the title in the weekend tourney hosted by Indian Hills.

The Warriors had swept a doubleheader from Iowa Western on Thursday and maintained the momentum with a win in their first postseason game, beating Muscatine CC, 4-2, on Saturday.  But the Warriors then dropped a 4-3 decision to Iowa Western in the day's late game.

Sunday began with IHCC knowing it would need to win three straight games to claim the region crown in the double elimination event.  They got a 4-1 win over Muscatine, but then lost 6-4 to Iowa Western in the title game.

It was the fifth year in a row that Indian Hills played in the championship game of the postseason region tourney, but the third straight year they were eliminated by Iowa Western.

Kendle Schieber provided the Warriors with a huge effort, throwing complete games in the first three games of the tourney.

The only runs allowed by Schieber in the two games with Muscatine -- her 3rd and 4th wins of the season against the Cardinals -- came on solo home runs.

After giving up a leadoff homer in the game with MCC on Saturday, Schieber saw teammate Kaitlyn Matzen put IHCC on top with a two-run home run in the 5th inning.  Olivia Starcevich and Matzen drove in insurance runs in the 6th and the Warriors started the region with a win.

Caitlin Nichol had her second solo homer in the 7th, acounting for all the MCC scoring.

Against IWCC the first day of the tourney, the teams traded bases-empty HRs -- Schieber hit one for the Warriors and Sam Villegas for the Reivers -- until Iowa Western scored three runs in the 5th.  Indian Hills got two of the runs back in the bottom of the 5th, one on a single by Matzen, but came up a run short.

Schieber went all seven innings in both games on Saturday and had another seven-inning performance in the game with Muscatine the next day.  After the Warriors scored an unearned run in the 1st, Dana Suiter hit a solo homer in the 4th to tie it.  But that's the only run MCC managed against Schieber, who allowed only five hits and struck out seven, retiring the last seven batters she faced.

An RBI infield single by Laci Moore scored Matzen from 2nd base in the 6th to break a 1-1 tie, and Kaylyn DeCock had a two-out, two-run single in the 7th to add to the lead.

But, again, the Warriors fell victim to Iowa Western in the next game. 

The Reivers scored two runs in the 3rd against IHCC starter Courtney Collins and three in the next inning against reliever Mackenzie Haight when the Warriors mishandled two straight squeeze bunts.  They added a run on a Villegas homer in the 6th.

DeCock's RBI single in the 3rd opened the scoring for IHCC and Matzen made it a one-run game with a three-run home run in the 5th.  The Warriors, down 6-4, loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 7th, but an infield groundout ended their hopes of forcing a winner-take-all game with Iowa Western.

For good measure, Schieber came on in relief and pitched a one-two-three 7th inning to cap a solid freshman season.

Indian Hills ends the year with a 22-28 record.  Four sophomores -- Hiliary Pennington, Kaitlyn Matzen, Carrie Hudson and Felisha Durflinger -- finished their IHCC careers with the defeat.  Pennington, Matzen and Hudson were all two-year starters at Indian Hills and Durflinger started all year after playing her freshman season at Marshalltown CC.