SULLY — Battling for control at the top of the South Iowa Cedar League baseball conference standings, Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks hosted Colfax-Mingo’s Tigerhawks in a showdown Monday.
The two teams met on the season’s opening day in Colfax with the Tigerhawks winning 1-0. The win put Colfax-Mingo on the path atop the SICL. Lynnville-Sully is in second place.
Hawk senior pitcher Tyler Van Zante was on the mound in the season-opener loss. Van Zante was back on the hill Monday night at home against the Tigerhawks. He limited the Tigerhawks to one hit, walked one and struck out six batters in a 2-0 win for Lynnville-Sully.
“We played outstanding defense tonight to back up Tyler’s strongest pitching performance of the year,” Lynnville-Sully head baseball coach Bob Scandridge said. “Tyler was very efficient with his pitching getting ahead of the batters all night.”
The Hawks scored single runs in the first and third innings. They had seven hits in the game. Van Zante and junior Elijah Collins each had two singles and drove in a run.
Elijah Collins and junior Carson Dunsbergen scored the runs. Carson Dunsbergen had a double. Junior Corbin James and Josh Dunsbergen each had a single.
Offensively, the key was we strung are hits together to push runs across the plate,” Scandridge said. “It was a big win for the kids tonight, because this puts the Hawks into a tie for the conference lead. We have a lot of baseball left and we need to finish strong down the stretch.”
Freshman Trystin Ross took the pitching loss for the Tigerhawks, who had a six-game winning streak snapped. Ross pitched four innings, allowing two runs on seven hits, and he struck out four batters.
Junior Jonathan Jacobs threw two scoreless and hitless innings, striking out four.
According to Colfax-MIngo’s statistics, the Tigerhawks had two singles off Van Zante. Senior Jimmy Camp and junior Misha Seebeck had the hits.
Lynnville-Sully improved to 10-2 in SICL play and Colfax-Mingo is 11-2.
Lynnville-Sully (11-5) plays in SICL action at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Montezuma. Colfax-Mingo (11-3) hosts HLV in a 6 p.m. conference game on Wednesday at Colfax.