Reiver Baseball Powers their way to Series Win

COUNCIL BLUFFS - After defeating Southeast CC 5-3 in game three, which was called midway through the 8th inning due to an injury to a Bobcat player in the dugout, NJCAA No. 14 Iowa Western used a 10-run 7th inning to defeat the visitors, 19-9 at Doc Ross Field on Sunday afternoon in game four of the four-game series.

The Reivers (5-3) started the game off hot on a 2-run double from Charlie Kalbrener and a 2-run blast, which was 103 mph according to the new Trackman at the field, off the bat of second baseman Josh Donna, to take an early 4-0 lead in the first inning.

Starting Pitcher Creighton Tuzzio worked his way through the first two innings, striking out five Bobcat batters, but ran into trouble in the 3rd, giving up back-to-back walks and allowing a pair of runs to score on a sacrifice fly and an error, making it 4-2.

Iowa Western answered back in the bottom of the 3rd inning, after putting runners on the corners, a throw over to first was not handled cleanly by Jack Hogan, allowing Justin Rompré to score from third base.  Donna would then send a ball over the head of centerfielder Jordan Monroe for an RBI double to make it 6-2.

Iowa Western would not make it easy on themselves defensively, committing four errors in the game, three of which led to four runs in the fifth inning, and four free passes led to three runs in the 6th inning to give Southeast (2-5) a 9-6 lead headed into the bottom of the 7th.

The Reiver bats came alive after surrendering their lead.  Noah Kubo and Troy Peltz led off with back-to-back walks, then Jayden Nakamura slapped a 2-run triple into right field.  Dylan England walked, and Nolan Geislinger followed with a 2-run triple of his own to make it 10-9.  Rompré's sac-fly scored Geislinger, then a walk to Kalbrener brought up Griffin Novacek. 

Novacek smashed a 2-run home run, 103 mph off the bat, to make it 12-9.  Donna followed with his second home run of the game, which hit the Reiver Athletic Performance building, 419 feet away in left field.  Kubo and Peltz again drew back-to-back walks, then it was Nakamura lacing a 2-run triple into right-center field to end the game in seven innings.

Iowa Western won its second series of the season after defeating New Mexico JC twice to start the 2026 year.  The Reivers will head to Neosho, MO, this coming weekend for a four-game series, then will have two games at Johnson County CC in Overland Park, KS, on the 27th, before coming back home on March 1st for a pair of games with JCCC at Doc Ross Field, starting at 1:00 pm.

A reminder that all of Iowa Western's home games can be viewed for FREE on the Reiver Sports Network.  Any links asking for credit card information are SPAM.  Keep up with Reiver Baseball on Instagarm @IowaWesternBaseball and X, @ReiverBaseball.