PRAIRIE CITY — Another big night at the plate by the top four batters in the lineup lifted the PCM baseball team to a postseason win over Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont on Saturday.
Easton Webb clubbed his third homer of the season, Kaleb DeVries doubled and tripled, Nick Farver scored four runs and Gabe Hobbs tallied two RBIs during the Mustangs’ 7-1 home win over the Rockets in Class 2A District 11 quarterfinals.
“They are the heart of the lineup. They really hold true to that. They do their job,” PCM head baseball coach Lewis Daye said.
It was the third straight opening-round postseason win for the Mustangs. EBF ends its season with three straight losses.
PCM plated one run in the first. Farver reached on an error, DeVries doubled and Webb loaded the bases with an infield single. The Mustangs went up 1-0 following a Rocket error.
PCM’s first at-bat ended in a double play, the Mustangs stranded a runner in scoring position in the second and left the bases loaded in the third.
The Mustangs did score twice in the third. Another Rocket error made it 2-0 and Trigg Steenhoek’s RBI single pushed the margin to 3-0.
DeVries’ RBI triple in the fourth scored Farver, who walked. DeVries hit his double and triple to almost the exact same spot in the gap in right-center field.
“I just tried to work the count,” DeVries said. “He kept pitching me inside and then left some mistakes that I was able to turn on and put in the gap.”
Webb’s bomb came in the sixth and his three-run shot to left field capped PCM’s scoring.
EBF (8-22) plated its run in the top of the sixth against Jacob Wendt.
Trenner Van Dyke (4-2) started on the mound and got the win. He was pulled after four innings and 65 pitches after surrendering no runs, no hits and two walks. He struck out four.
Wendt tossed two innings and was pulled after 45 pitches. He allowed one unearned run, one hit and two walks and struck out one.
Farver pitched the seventh and allowed one hit while striking out three.
All three pitchers will be available for the Mustangs’ district game against 2A No. 2 Des Moines Christian on Tuesday.
“I want to have the whole staff available for the playoffs, and we don’t want them to be rusty since we haven’t played in a while,” Daye said. “I knew Trenner would get us a good start. I can pretty much run the staff like a major league rotation with a starter, set-up guy and closer.”
The top four batters in PCM’s lineup accounted for six of the team’s nine hits, six of the seven runs and RBIs and all seven strikeouts came from the bottom of the order.
DeVries doubled, tripled and had one RBI and he was hit by one pitch. Webb homered, scored two runs and had three RBIs and Farver tallied one hit, four runs, two walks and one steal.
DeVries leads the Mustangs with two triples, Farver has a team-best 29 hits and 24 runs and Webb has accounted for a team-most three homers, 22 RBIs and 36 total bases.
Hobbs’ one hit lowered his team-best batting average to .415 and he has a team-high .544 on-base percentage.
“Nick and I do our jobs to get on base and Ethan has brought us home a lot this year,” DeVries said. “He sent another one out tonight. Gabe always does his job, too. The top of the order has done well all season.”
Trigg Steenhoek tallied one hit and one RBI, Coby DeRaad registered one hit and one run and Jack Jungling collected one hit.
Jackson Tuller led the Rockets with one hit, one run and two walks and Blake Jager walked twice.
Wyatt Sandeen (4-4) struck out seven batters over 5 2/3 innings and took the pitching loss.
PCM (10-12) hadn’t played a game since June 26. Its games against Sigourney (June 28), Cardinal (July 1) and Knoxville (July 2) all were canceled due to weather.
The Mustangs face the second-ranked Lions (29-4) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Urbandale.
“We’ll need good team baseball, good defense and a good approach at the plate,” Daye said. “We can’t try to do too much.”
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