Indians Take Advantage Of PC Errors
Tyler Miller helped lead the Indians to victory against Pella Christian on Monday night.
by Jamie Brockman
Oskaloosa’s bats stayed hot into Monday night as the Indians baseball team traveled to Pella Christian and came away with an 8-2 win. The win improved Oskaloosa to 10-4 overall and to the top of the Little Hawkeye Conference at 7-3.
Facing Pella Christian’s ace pitcher Will Dembski, who entered the game with 45 strikeouts in 23 innings the Indians came out hot, scoring four runs on four hits and three Pella Christian errors in the top of the first inning.
Wyatt Krier started things with a leadoff base hit, followed by a Rian Yates single. Tyler Miller kept it going with an RBI single scoring Krier, then Colton Butler ripped an RBI double to score Miller. With no outs, Noah Van Veldhuizen drew a walk, before Nik Dykstra and Charlie North each reached base on Eagles errors scoring two more runs. Pella Christian scored a run on two hits off Osky starter Tyler Miller in the bottom of the first inning for a score of 4-1.
After both teams were retired in order in the second inning, Oskaloosa added three more runs in their half of the third inning on one hit and another Eagle error.
Butler started with a leadoff walk; Van Veldhuizen reached on an error, then Cole Kraber grounded a ball back to the pitcher who forced out Butler at third base for the first out while Kraber reached on the fielders choice. Later in the inning, Nik Dykstra ripped an RBI double scoring Kraber, then Charlie North hit a fly ball into center field for the second out, but scored Dykstra from the third inning giving the Indians a healthy 7-1 lead. Osky extended their lead to 8-1 in the fourth inning on another base hit from Krier who then scored on an RBI triple from Tyler Miller. Pella Christian scored one in the sixth inning after Dembski led off with a triple then scored on an RBI single from Matthew Bokhoven.
Oskaloosa scored eight runs on eight hits, committed 0 errors and left seven runners on base. Pella Christian scored two runs off five hits, committed four errors and also stranded seven runners.
Tyler Miller got the win with his best performance of the season to date, pitching two and two-thirds innings, allowing one run on two hits, while striking out two and walking none. After retiring the first two hitters in the third inning, Miller was pulled to keep his pitch count low and was relieved by Cole Kraber.
After getting the final out of the third inning, Kraber pitched the fourth inning allowing no runs, no hits, walked one and struck out two. Head Coach Bill Almond called on Nik Dykstra to pitch the fifth and sixth innings. Dykstra allowed one run on three hits, struck out two, walked one and hit two batters. Wyatt Krier closed it out pitching the seventh inning and retired the Eagles in order including one strikeout.
At the plate, Krier went 3-4 and scored two runs while Yates was 1-4 and scored a run. Miller was 2-4 with two RBI and scored a run. Butler was 1-2 with a walk, and an RBI, Van Veldhuizen was 0-2 with a walk and a run scored. Kraber was 0-3 with a run scored, Dykstra went 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Charlie North was 0-2 with an RBI and Will Schultz was 0-2.
Oskaloosa hosts Knoxville in a JV and varsity action Tuesday night with the JV game at 5:30 followed by varsity at 7:30 pm, then travels to Grinnell for a varsity doubleheader starting at 5:30 pm Wednesday.
