It’s the battle of Iowa 92 on the baseball diamond tonight, when Keota hosts Sigourney in the KCII Area Game of the Week. 

Keota baseball survived a contest with Iowa Valley Friday to improve to 6-8. A game that saw five different lead changes ended 7-6 Eagles, after a pair of losses to conference-leading Lynneville-Sully and BGM. Keota has found themselves in many tight games through this point, with half of their losses decided by three runs or fewer. An offense hitting .276 with four home runs has had its spurts, and includes four players averaging .300 or better. Cole Kindred is one of them, leading the team with 17 RBIs and three of the four long balls. In his first varsity season, eighth-grader Blake Baker is setting the pace with 17 hits and a sizzling .415 average. Defensively, the Eagles have used six different pitchers in 87 innings. Opposing teams are batting just .217 against a staff that has a 3.62 ERA. Kindred, fellow-senior Tanner Waterhouse, and junior Billie Kindred have taken a majority of that workload, accounting for more than 80 percent of the team’s strikeouts. 

They welcome the Savages, who are red-hot entering Monday’s contest. The winners of five straight, Sigourney handled Belle Plaine by a final of 10-3. Friday’s win included four Savage runs in the opening inning, and multiple two-out rallies to separate them from the Plainsmen. Isaac Bruns drove in three, while Cole McKay had a game-high three hits. Chase Clarahan struck out seven Belle Plaine hitters in five innings, and Lincoln Power closed the door. Despite his season average going down, Caden Clarahan went 2-4 with his fourth home run as he continues to lead a Sigourney team hitting .365. The Savages are top 10 in 1A baseball in average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, RBI’s, home runs, and doubles. Even though they’ve had plenty of run support, Sigourney pitchers have built a 2.77 ERA keeping opposing hitters below .180. As to be expected, the series history is back-and-forth between these two teams, but Sigourney has won five in a row, including 7-5 on May 22. The last Keota victory over the Savages came in 2021. 

 Tune into the KCII Area Game of the Week on the KCII3 Stream tonight to hear Keota and Sigourney baseball. The Roder Epoxy Pregame Show goes live at 5 p.m. followed by first pitch between the Eagles and Savages at 5:30 from Keota.