Indian Baseball Advances in Postseason Play

#16 Cole Kraber celebrates a 3-run homer Saturday night.

#16 Cole Kraber celebrates a 3-run homer Saturday night.

by Wade Steinlage

The Oskaloosa Indian baseball team erupted for one of its best offensive showings of the season, and at the perfect time as it moved on in the 2018 postseason.

Oskaloosa (22-12) opened the week with a 7-5 loss to Fairfield Tuesday. Due to rain, the team then had to wait 24 hours to get postseason action underway and advanced easily with a 14-1 (5 innings) win over South Tama Saturday in the Class 3A District 12 semifinal.

OHS now advances to face Ballard at home Monday at 7 p.m. in the district final. The victor will face the winner of #9 North Polk vs. Bondurant-Farrar in the Substate 6 matchup for a berth to state on the line. The substate game is Wednesday at North Polk High School in Alleman at 7 p.m.

Fairfield 7, OHS 5

Both programs entered OHS’ season finale receiving votes in Class 3A, but it was the host Trojans who came away on top.

Fairfield was hot early, posting five runs in the first frame and never looking back. Oskaloosa trimmed the deficit to 5-2 in the next half inning as Tucker Nunnikhoven homered over the center field fence.

Unfortunately, the Trojans got those two tallies back in the fourth. The Indians, who owned a 9-6 edge in hits, never surrendered and again came out swinging in the fifth. Headlined by RBI singles from Keaton DeKock and Nick Harrington, OHS produced three runs, but could come no closer.

Harrington and Blake Van Veldhuizen each finished 2-for-3 in the setback. A quintet of hurlers hit the mound for OHS; Colton Butler topped the crew with two scoreless frames. Wyatt Krier and Noah Van Veldhuizen both shut out Fairfield in one inning of work as well.

OHS 14, South Tama 1

The Indians put on a show for the home crowd, pounding out 13 hits and scoring all 14 of their runs in the first three frames.

After Rian Yates sat down the Trojans in order in the top half of the first, his teammates went to work at the dish. South Tama helped OHS’ cause with two first-inning errors (three total) as Oskaloosa put four on the board immediately. Alex Dejong had the biggest hit of the frame with a two-run single.

With two outs recorded in their first three at-bats of the second inning, the Indians did not appear primed to have a repeat of the first frame. One hit turned into another, however, and the floodgates abruptly opened to the tune of an eight-run inning. Blake Van Veldhuizen connected for a two-run double, and Cole Kraber bettered that with a three-run roundtripper to cap the frame. In all, OHS managed seven hits, including three singles, two doubles, a triple, and a home run, in addition to a walk and a hit-by-pitch.

With the game in hand, Kraber entered for Yates on the rubber and kept South Tama at bay. Yates struck out three in two innings, while Kraber tallied one more K in three frames of action.

Conversely, little was going to slow down the Indians as Dejong’s RBI double led OHS to two more tallies in the third.

Nine different Oskaloosa players finished with a base knock, paced by Dejong who was 3-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Blake Van Veldhuizen was 2-for-3 with three RBIs, while Kraber drove in three runs as well. Like Dejong, Harrington was perfect at the plate at 2-for-2; he also scored twice. Nunnikhoven, Tyler Miller, and Hogan Rockhold all crossed home plate twice as well.

Posted by on Jul 15 2018. Filed under Local News, School Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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