The Iowa Mennonite baseball and softball teams hosted the annual IMS Classic Saturday on their campus.
The Iowa Mennonite baseball team went 2-0 on the day, pounding Danville in the opener 17-2 and beating Keokuk in the championship game 5-0. Against the Bears, IMS jumped up early, scoring five times in the bottom of the first. Danville put up a pair of runs in their half of the third to get within 5-2 before IMS put the game away with three runs in their half and a nine run fourth inning. IMS pounded out 12 hits as a team, led by Eli Ours, London Schrock, Blake Bontrager and Isaiah Swantz each with two. Trevor Leyden, Schrock, Reggie Borntrager, Swantz, and Bontrager each drove in two. Swantz got the win on the mound going four innings, giving up three hits, two runs and striking out four.
In the title game each team started an eighth grader with Keokuk going to Cole Gillenwater and IMS turning to Noah Miller. Each starter took a no-hit bid into the fifth. Keokuk got their only hit of the game in that inning off of Miller while IMS broke it up with a five run rally on five hits that included runs from Cole Ours, Eli Ours, Reggie Borntrager, Blake Bontrager and Miller. Cole Ours and Trevor Leyden each drove in two in the rally, Jacob Boller had one RBI. That was more than enough for the IMS pitching staff who saw Miller throw six innings of shut out ball and Borntrager come in to record the final three outs. With the sweep, IMS baseball has now won five straight and stand at 11-6 on the year, going into a game at Wapello on Monday.
The Iowa Mennonite School softball team dropped both of their home tournament games Saturday. IMS fell in game one to Danville 13-1. The Bears took control at the start, after turning away IMS 1-2-3 in the top of the first, Danville scored 10 runs, sending 16 hitters to the plate in their half and never looked back. The Bears ended the game after just three innings played via the mercy rule. IMS had five hits on the day and scored their lone run in the third when Avery Blauvelt brought home Suzanna Yoder.
Game two was a shoot out between a pair of KCII area teams as Columbus avenged an earlier season loss to IMS with a 12-11 victory. The Wildcats went up 3-0 in the top of the first only to see IMS respond with four in the bottom of half of inning one to go up 4-3. With a three spot in the second, IMS extended their lead to 7-3. Columbus came back with three in the third to pull within 7-6 and IMS again scored twice to make it 9-6. The Wildcats scored a pair in the fourth and four in the fifth to take the lead and the IMS rally came up short as they scored twice in the fifth. Emma Milder was one for two at the plate with three RBI. She also recorded the win in the circle going all five innings. Rubye Ney, Avery Blauvelt and Mia Graber each drove in three for IMS in the loss. Iowa Mennonite now stands at 1-13 on the year.