Published: June 26, 2009 12:17 pm      

Pella Christian wins home baseball tourney

Dorothy was right – "There’s no place like home!" Pella Christian hosted its own baseball tournament, Saturday, and the ‘Boys of Summer‘ claimed the trophy by defeating Lynnville-Sully 11-0 and Eddyville-Blakesburg 6-4.

In the first game, the Eagles jumped out to an early 2-0 lead over the Hawks. Alex Arkema led off the first inning with a single and then Sam DeNooy hit his second home run of the season to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.

The Eagles would not need any more runs as pitcher Zach Zylstra threw a complete game shut out. Zylstra allowed only six hits while striking out four.

Pella Christian did give Zylstra some breathing room by scoring runs in six of the seven innings to claim the 11-0 win.

Jon Holwerda led the attack with three hits, followed by Arkema, DeNooy and Tyler Klyn with two hits. Zylstra and Zach Ruiter each added one hit.

In the other bracket, Eddyville defeated Bondurant-Farrar to set up the title game.

After shutting down Eddyville in the top of the first inning the Eagles again started fast, scoring in the bottom of the first on a double by DeNooy and a single by Klyn. The Eagles scored in the third on a double by DeNooy and an overthrow that allowed DeNooy to get to third.

A successful suicide squeeze made the score 2-0. PC added another run in the fourth and three in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead into the seventh. After a rough seventh inning that saw Eddyville fight back to score four runs, the Eagles closed the door to win the game 6-4 and win the championship.

Tom Bouwkamp pitched a strong four innings, allowing four hits while striking out three. Matt Vander Hart, Alex Arkema and Sam DeNooy all pitched in relief to secure the win.

The wins put the Eagles at 11-6 for the season.