The early leaders in the Iowa Conference baseball race collide in Pella on Tuesday as Central hosts Simpson in a doubleheader. Both teams are 5-1 in the league race.

Central is 15-4 overall and coach Adam Stevens says an experienced pitching staff is a big factor. He says they’ve found over the years that depth is where you win games and they have pitched well and played great defense.

Stevens says nearly the entire pitching staff is back from last year after graduating just one pitcher. Stevens says the Dutch have done a good job of manufacturing runs this season.

“They always say that speed never slumps…this weekend was a good example of that, we weren’t firing on all cylinders offensively, but we were able to steal a bunch of bases and bunt a little bit,” Steven says. He says they have only hit 3 home runs, but are able to manufacture runs in a lot of different ways.