The Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) baseball team opened the 2020 season with a four-game series against Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa (NOT) Feb. 15 and 16 at Tonkawa, Okla., and dropped three of the four games.

NOT came away with 7-3 and 9-0 wins on Feb. 15 and won the opener on Feb. 16, 7-2, before DMACC took the nightcap by a 5-3 score.

DMACC was limited to just four hits in losing the opener on Feb. 15, a single and a double by sophomore Dylan Voves of Mason City and singles from freshman Cadyn Schwabe of Thompson, N.D., and sophomore Carter Troncin of Urbandale. Troncin drove in two DMACC runs and sophomore Kaleb Harrison of Neola added an RBI.

DMACC took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but NOT responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning, a run in the third and two each in the fourth and fifth innings to come away with the win.

Sophomore Will Moritz of West Des Moines pitched the first three and two-thirds innings and suffered the loss. He allowed five runs on seven hits, walked five and struck out two. Sophomore Jacob Passow of Germantown, Wis., pitched one inning, allowing two runs on two hits and walking one batter, and freshman Blake Grevengoed of West Des Moines worked one inning, allowing one hit and striking out one batter.

Troncin had a double and Schwabe hit two singles in DMACC's loss in the second game on Feb. 15. NOT came away with the win on a run in the first, two in the second, one in the third, four in the fourth and one in the sixth.

Freshman Ray Ray Douglas of Sioux City pitched the first three innings for the Bears, allowing four runs on three hits. He struck out three and walked six in suffering the loss. Sophomore Logan Ymker of Sioux Falls, S.D., threw two innings, allowing four runs on one hit and walking three. Sophomore Evan Appenzeller of Boone went one inning, allowing one run on one hit and walking two batters.

Freshman Kyle Westhoff of West Des Moines had two hits and Harrison, Voves and Schwabe had one apiece in DMACC's loss in the opener on Feb. 16. The Bears trailed 3-2 after five innings, but a four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth gave NOT the win.

Freshman Kolton Scherbenske of Rapid City, S.D., pitched the first four innings and suffered the loss. He allowed three runs on two hits, struck out three and walked four. Sophomore Nathaniel Gorczyca of Omaha, Neb., went an inning and two-thirds, allowing four runs on three hits. He struck out two and walked two. Freshman Bret Price of Boone went a third of an inning and retired the only batter he faced.

Troncin and freshman Ben Nippolt of St. Paul, Minn., had two hits apiece, including a pair of doubles from Troncin, as DMACC took the final game of the series. The Bears scored single runs in each of the first two innings, added two runs in the fourth and closed out the win with a run in the sixth. Westhoff, freshman Dayne Leonard of Spring Green, Wis., and freshman Nolan Kelliher of Middleton, Wis., drove in one run apiece for the Bears.

Sophomore Kaden Peterson of Luther went the distance to get the win. He allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out three batters.

The DMACC baseball team will play Butler Community College (BCC) in a four-game series Feb. 22 and 23 at El Dorado, Kan.