While the majority of college students were on the first day of Spring Break, the ICC Indians were locked in a non-division battle with the East Central Warriors. The double header wasn't of the normal variety as game one was a nine inning affair while game two was set to be the normal seven.
In game one, the Indians jumped out to an early 2-1 lead courtesy of an RBI single by Drew Alford in the first and a bases loaded walk by Chris Hannig in the third. The lead was slim, but Parker Northington, who was making his first start of the season, was shutting the Warriors down after a first inning run. Northington came out with the win in place after five innings of 2 hit baseball and four strikeouts.
In the sixth, the Indians saw their lead slip away as the Warrior took advantage of the Indians mistakes by plating three runs and taking a 4-2 lead. Despite a Jake Smithey solo home run in the bottom of the seventh, the Indians were unable to produce any more runs and dropped game one 5-3 as the Warriors tacked on another run in the ninth.
Game two showed a big turn around at the plate for the Indians where they scored 11 runs on 13 hits, while the pitchers Taylor Dickerson and Dylan Earnest held the Warriors to three this and one run. Dickerson, who started game two, gave up all three hits, but struck out five in the winning effort, while Earnest threw one inning where he struck out the side in order.
The Indians bats that struggled to produce runs in game one, sure found their swing in game two as five different indians drove in runs. Dillon Mitchell, Cody Shrewsbury and Alford all drove in two runs a piece, while Jeremy Ferguson and Smithey drove in one each as the Indians cruised to an 11-1 win in six innings.
Smithey had a big day at the plate in both games for the Indians as he went 6-8 on the day with two home runs, two singles, one double, one walk and had two RBIs.
The Indians will be on the road the remainder of Spring Break, when not hosting the high school tournament at Cresap Field. The two dates schedule this week will be North Division showdowns as the Indians travel to Moorhead to take on MS Delta on Wednesday and then to Goodman on Saturday to play Holmes.
