On Saturday the Falcons rolled all over the Tiger, winning both games by a combined 37-9, so on Sunday in the final doubleheader of the series MCC wanted to show a little better fight.

The Tigers got their wish, falling narrowly in game three to start the day, 5-4, then playing close in game four but eventually losing 5-0.

MCC head coach Kim Johnson said the difference between Saturday’s doubleheader and Sunday’s was the effort from his pitchers.

“We definitely performed better on the mound today, which has been suspect throughout the course of the year,” Johnson said. “We knew we were going to be thin there and we are trying to develop guys into pitchers and I think that today, even more in the second game, we saw results of developing pitchers.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown Community College second baseman Jeffry Roldan flips the ball towards first base to record an out during the Tigers’ home doubleheader against Indian Hills on Sunday.

Greg Glass got the start in game one, going the first 5 1/3 innings and allowing eight hits and five earned runs, and PJ Maldonado Rodriguez came in with 1 2/3 scoreless innings to close out the game, allowing just one hit and striking out one.

Game two had a similar stat line, as Brodie Paulson started the game and went 2 1/3 innings allowing four earned runs off five hit. Then Christopher Lopez went to work, going the next 3 2/3 innings allowing no runs and only two hits, before Diego Almonte came in for the final inning, allowing no runs on one hit and a strikeout.

The interesting thing about all of those players, nearly all of them were recruited to MCC to do something other than pitch, but they have developed into reliable arms as the season draws to a close.

“Christopher came out and kept us in the game when it was 5-0, kept us in it and Diego came out and throws the seventh, those are two position players that we have turned into pitchers that are behind the curve and if they would have had those background innings in, we would have seen this sooner because it’s there,” Johnson said.

Offensively it was a tale of two games, as the Tigers (8-32, 6-18) recorded nine hits for their four runs in the first game, while Indian Hills (34-20, 15-9) pitcher Rodny Valdes shut down the MCC attack in game two, throwing a complete-game one-hitter.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We put the ball in play in the first game today pretty well, their lefty just through an outstanding game and controlled us in the second,” Johnson said. “You just have to tip your hat to him, to me he was the biggest difference in the game and in all four games we played this weekend. That lefty on the mound controls the game.”

In the first game, Marving Serrano went 2-for-4 with two runs in one of his final home games of his MCC career, while Joe Monosmith went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

This tendency to fight back when it seems they are down and out has persisted through the entire year for the Tigers, and Johnson said he is proud of how the guys have stuck it out.

“Even though we dropped a doubleheader, today we responded unbelievably well,” Johnson said. “The dugout was in both games and the kids have hung together through a tough season. There is nobody giving up, as today shows, nobody has rolled over. Now we’ve got tournament play and hopefully we can sneak up on somebody and bite them there.”

First up in the NJCAA Division I Region XI tournament for the Tigers is this Indian Hills team, who they have gone 1-7 against this season. Johnson said having that one victory in the first game they played and the way they closed out this doubleheader he feels good about where his team stands heading to the postseason.

“We’ve got these guys in the first round of the tournament, we’ve beat them once in our conference series and we had them on the ropes in the first game. We were with them in the second game so we know that the opportunity is there,” Johnson said. “We do have enough pitching to get us through a four-team tournament, but we’ve got to play well.”

That first game of the Region XI tournament will be on Friday in Centerville, starting at 2 p.m.

At Marshalltown

Game One

Indian Hills 5, Marshalltown 4

Indian Hills 011 003 0 — 5 9 1

MCC 200 001 1 — 4 9 0

Oracio Deleon, Zachary Fascia, Hunter Capps and Jake Kristensen; Greg Glass, PJ Maldonado Rodriguez and Carter Eldridge. WP–Deleon. LP–Glass. S–Capps. 2B–IH: Christian Peña; MCC: Luke Woodward. 3B–IH: Will Zimmerman. HR–IH: Kristensen (1). LOB–IH 11, MCC 10.

Game Two

Indian Hills 5, Marshalltown 0

Indian Hills 104 000 0 — 5 8 1

MCC 000 000 0 — 0 1 1

Rodny Valdes and Kristensen; Brodie Paulson, Christopher Lopez and Diego Almonte. WP–Valdes. LP–Paulson. 2B–IH: Justin King, Zimmerman. LOB–IH 5, MCC 3.