Panther baseball falls to Indianola

Creston baseball and No. 10 (4A) Indianola were tied 2-2 heading into the the fifth inning, however, the Panthers surrendered three runs and fell 5-2 to the Indians Monday night at Panther Field.

With the loss, Creston falls to 0-4 on the season and the Indians improve to 6-1.

“Our young guys are coming along and we’re all buying into the mentality that we’re going to compete every single pitch,” Creston head coach Brandon Phipps said. “We’re learning that, if we can compete every single pitch we can compete with the No. 10 team in 4A. If we do that, we believe we can win every game because we’re going to do everything right.”

The Panthers had five hits in the game and Kyle Strider and Sam Henry drove both runs in for the Creston cause.

However, the Panthers’ bats were silenced by a combined 13 strikeouts by Indianola pitchers Andrew DeWall and Luke Rockhold.

Sophomore Dylan Calvin got the start and pitched 74 times over the course of 4 1/3 innings.

“I’m really proud of him,” Phipps said. “This is his first varsity start on the hill and he really got after it. I could tell he was a little nervous coming out there, but he settled in.”

Gage Skarda came in to relieve Calvin and pitched 2 2/3 innings.

“Skarda is our reliable relief guy,” Phipps said. “We like to go to him when we can, especially when we have a shot to win. He did a fantastic job as always.”

Creston is scheduled to host No. 1 (2A) Van Meter tonight at 7:30 p.m.