PRAIRIE CITY — There has been a lot of improvement on the baseball diamond for Prairie City-Monroe this season.
The biggest jump in batting average individually has come from Olin Meinders. The Mustang senior batted .264 last season but entered Tuesday’s Heart of Iowa Conference game with a .429 average.
Meinders and the rest of the senior starters led the Mustangs to a 10-4 home win over Nevada.
Meinders had one hit, was hit by a pitch and drove in a run on each of his first three at-bats.
PCM’s five senior starters combined for seven of the team’s 10 hits, nine of the team’s 10 runs, two walks, two hit by pitches, three steals and seven RBIs.
The Mustangs improved to 17-3 overall and 9-3 in the HOIC. Nevada dropped to 5-19 overall and 2-12 in the conference.
Reed Worth, Preston Van Wyk and Brayton Van Dyke all were on base three times for the Mustangs.
Worth was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the first. Van Wyk then walked and Van Dyke’s first hit was an RBI single that scored Worth. Dane Owens followed with an RBI single and Meinders’ RBI fielder’s choice made it 3-0 after one inning.
In the third, Owens doubled, moved to third on an error and then scored on Meinders’ RBI groundout. Owens came into the night batting .344 after hitting .250 last season.
Van Wyk began the fifth inning with a triple. He scored on Van Dyke’s RBI single and then Meinders’ RBI single plated Van Dyke, who stole second base. Wes Cummings brought home Meinders with his run-scoring single.
Worth began the sixth inning with a walk. He scored on Van Wyk’s second triple of the night and then Van Dyke walked and went to second on a catcher’s indifference.
Owens’ RBI sacrifice fly scored Van Wyk and then Van Dyke scored later to make it 10-4.
Worth had one hit, walked once, was hit by a pitch, scored twice and stole three bases. He has improved his batting average by a full 100 points from last season.
All this production was plenty of support for Derek Brown, who improved to 6-1 on the mound. He went 6 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits with nine strikeouts and four walks.
He was extremely efficient early in the game, needing only 17 pitches to get through two innings and 23 to get through three. He was removed with two outs in the top of the seventh after throwing 108 pitches.
Brown was perfect through three innings. His two earned runs came in the fourth inning. Nevada plated unearned runs in the sixth and seventh frames.
Van Wyk induced a ground ball to third for the final out of the game.
Van Wyk, Van Dyke and Owens all had two hits, Van Wyk and Van Dyke both scored three runs and Meinders drove in three runs. Owens and Van Dyke each had two RBIs.
Sage Burns, who leads the team with a .458 batting average, had one hit and walked once.
PCM finalizes its regular season against Gilbert at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in Gilbert.
Colfax-Mingo 16, Collins-Maxwell 1, 4 innings
COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo’s baseball team kept Collins-Maxwell winless on the season with a 16-1, four-inning home win on Tuesday night.
Statistics were unavailable at press time, but the Tigerhawks improved to 9-11 with the win. The Spartans fell to 0-16.
Colfax-Mingo concludes the regular season with a road game against Des Moines Christian at 5 p.m. on Thursday in Urbandale.
Montezuma 11,
Baxter 9
MONTEZUMA — Baxter’s baseball team erased a five-run deficit with a six-run fifth inning, but Montezuma rallied with five runs in its final two at-bats and defeated the Bolts 11-9 on Tuesday during non-conference action.
The Bolts trailed 6-1 after four innings. They scored six runs in the fifth to take the lead. A Cole Damman two-run single in the seventh closed the gap to 11-9 but that’s as close as Baxter got.
Rory Heer’s RBI groundout put the Bolts (6-16) on the board in the third. In the fifth, a Heer single and a Carter Nelsen double produced three runs. Ian Thomson and Cody Damman also had RBI singles in the inning to help Baxter take a narrow lead.
Montezuma (5-13) scored three unearned runs in the fifth to retake the lead. Those runs wound up being the difference in the game.
Derrick Klemme started on the mound and took the loss. Thomson also pitched in relief for the Bolts.
Montezuma had 16 hits in the game. Baxter finished with 11 hits.
Baxter opens Class 1A district play against Lynnville-Sully at 5 p.m. on Saturday in Grundy Center.
East Marshall 8,
Lynnville-Sully 0
GILMAN — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks were shut out by the East Marshall Mustangs on Tuesday. The hosting Mustangs won 8-0 in a non-conference contest.
East Marshall (10-17) scored twice in the first inning and once in the second. The Mustangs had a four-run third inning and added a run in the sixth.
The Hawks (10-18) wrap up their regular season with two more games this week. They play at South Tama at 7 p.m. Wednesday in non-conference action. They finish the South Iowa Cedar League slate at 6 p.m. on Thursday against HLV at Victor.
Lynnville-Sully had two hits — one single each by Blaize Kuhlmann and Skyler Sanders. Bray Noun Harder, Payton Van Wyk and Kuhlmann pitched for the Hawks. They combined to allow seven hits and issued three walks. Noun Harder and Kuhlmann each had three strikeouts.
