Spartans baseball goes 1-3 at home

The spring weather held out for the Spartans baseball team as they hosted two doubleheaders last week, winning just the first game.

Tuesday, the Spartans (17-33, 1-9) hosted Indian Hills (22-17, 6-4), winning game one 7-4 and losing the second 14-8.

In game one, the Spartans put up a run in the first, but Indian Hills responded with a run of their own in the second off a deep double to center field.

Southwestern continued their offense, scoring two runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings. At the bottom of the sixth inning, SWCC was up 7-3. The Indians scored one, but it wasn’t enough, and the Spartans took the win without going to the bottom of the seventh.

Scoring runs for Southwestern were Anibal Montanez and Jackson McDanel with two each and Dustin Bennett, Wyatt Throckmorton and Brayden Mitchell each with one.

Daniel Cepeda sent in two runs as did Ismael Bencosme. Joham Ramirez, Elias Culzac and Mitchell each had one RBI.

Pitching was split between Ryan Boklmann and Eliot Bergollo, Boklmann striking out five batters and allowing three runs while Bergollo had no strikeouts but only allowed one run.

In game two, the Spartans started hot — putting up their biggest inning of the day in the first as they sent in four runs. After two sequential batters were hit by the pitch, SWCC loaded the bases with two outs. Wilson Villanueva delivered just what they were looking for, a grand slam right down the middle.

The Indians finally got their offense going in the second, scoring five runs that inning and four in the following.

The Spartans were unable to deliver the runs they had put up in the first inning, sprinkling one run each in the second, fourth, fifth and eighth innings, two of them being solo homers — one by Culzac and one from Bencosme.

The bullpen was heavily used as the Spartans tried to combat the onslaught of offense from the Indians. Alex Parish pitched three innings, striking out four batters. The Spartans’ fifth strikeout came from Kenton Jensen.

Saturday, Iowa Western came to town, walking away with two victories over the Spartans — 5-4 and 14-7. The Reivers are 38-9 on the season and 11-1 in conference play.

Despite being the underdogs, the Spartans stayed close, even taking a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth. The Indians had the opportunity in the fourth for a double play to close out the inning on a grounder to left field by McDanel, but an error from the third baseman to the second baseman kept both runners safe.

Both runners advanced on a wild pitch to Mitchell, but in the end, it wasn’t necessary as Mitchell knocked the next pitch out of the park.

The Reivers came back to tie the game at 4 where it stayed through the bottom of the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Iowa Western scored what would become the winning run.

This week its deja vu for the Spartans as they head to Indian Hills today for a double header and tomorrow they host the Reivers. After those games, the postseason begins with regional championships May 7, 8 and 9.