GILBERT — Prairie City-Monroe’s baseball team has four losses this season. All four have come against Class 3A No. 7 Gilbert and 3A No. 9 North Polk.
The positive for the Mustangs is that the second game against both teams was much more competitive than the first one.
PCM fell behind early against Gilbert on Thursday but battled to the end during a 5-3 road loss in Heart of Iowa Conference action.
“It was a good, competitive game,” PCM coach Jeff Lindsay said. “It was nice to answer them after they took an early lead.”
Gilbert (23-4 overall, 13-1 in HOIC play) wrapped up a share of the conference title with North Polk after the win. North Polk also finished 13-1 in league play.
The Mustangs head into the 2A postseason at 17-4. They finished third in the HOIC at 9-4.
Gilbert plated two runs in the first, but PCM tied with a two-run third inning.
The Tigers scored the deciding runs in the bottom of the third and then added an insurance run in the sixth after the Mustangs got within one run in the top of the fifth.
“It was a good final game before districts,” Lindsay said. “It was a loss, but we had opportunities to be in the game.”
PCM used sophomores Andrew Mitchell and Beau Webb on the mound. Mitchell started, took the loss and allowed four earned runs on nine hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Webb pitched two innings and surrendered one earned run on three hits.
The Mustangs had 10 hits in the loss.
Reed Worth, Wes Cummings and Sage Burns all had two hits. Worth scored a run and stole a base.
Preston Van Wyk had one hit, one walk and one run, Brayton Van Dyke had one hit, two steals and was hit by a pitch and Dane Owens finished with one hit and an RBI.
Caleb Duinink had one hit and his courtesy runner Kaeden VanSoelen scored a run and Derek Brown walked and stole a base.
The Mustangs earned a first-round bye in the 2A playoffs. They begin district play against either Pella Christian or Union at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in State Center.
HLV 10, Lynnville-Sully 0
VICTOR — Lynnville-Sully’s baseball team finished up its regular season with a South Iowa Cedar League contest on the road. The Hawks lost 10-0 to SICL champion HLV on Thursday.
The Warriors (22-3, 15-1 in the SICL) led 4-0 after two innings then had a six-run fifth to seal with win.
The Hawks ended up 6-10 in conference play and 10-20 overall.
Payton Van Wyk, Blaize Kuhlmann and Bray Noun Harder pitched for the Hawks. Slater Young and Kinnick McFarland had a single apiece for the Hawks against HLV.
Lynnville-Sully begins Class 1A District 11 play Saturday against Baxter at Grundy Center.
The two Jasper County teams play in the first of a district doubleheader starting at 5 p.m.
On Wednesday, the Hawks lost 4-2 in non-conference to North Tama. McFarland threw a complete game, allowing five hits, walking two and striking out nine.
Braden Alberts had two singles. Hitting a single each were McFarland, Kuhlmann, Noun Harder, Young, Skyler Sanders and Nick Rea.
Des Moines Christian 10, Colfax-Mingo 0, 5 innings
URBANDALE — Brady Berkey had the only hit for Colfax-Mingo’s baseball team during a 10-0, five-inning loss to Des Moines Christian (25-8) on Thursday.
Colfax-Mingo (9-12) used Berkey, Trystin Ross, Jake Nichols and Zarek Hill on the mound in the team’s regular season finale.
They were all kept under 40 pitches so they are still available for the opening round of the 2A playoffs.
The Tigerhawks open postseason play against Pleasantville at 5 p.m. on Saturday in Madrid.
