Indianola tops Pleasant Valley, wins program’s first Iowa baseball state title

After years of waiting, Indianola has finally done it.

In the program’s fifth-ever trip to the Iowa high school baseball state tournament and its first-ever state championship game, Indianola claimed the program’s first state championship with a 9-6 win over Pleasant Valley on Friday, July 24.​

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“This means everything,” said Indianola senior Zach Benge. “A lot of people sleep on the Indy boys, but we are here to play. We are here to compete.” ​

Now, the 2026 Indianola baseball team is cemented as the best team in school history, surpassing the historic 1969 team. But it took some time, unity, and understanding about what the next steps were to reach their goal. ​

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“I had a conversation with (former MLB star and Indianola native) Casey Blake about three years ago,” said Indianola coach Nathan Carlin. “I was the head coach at Bondurant-Ferrer at the time and (Casey) just said, ‘I want you to be our next head coach,’ and we just kind of bought into each other. His kids, his nephews, bought into me. The entire team, the entire community bought into what we were trying to do.”

​After last season’s substate final loss to Iowa City West, there was immediate conversation matched with hunger to get better, to learn from that loss.​

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“We took our lumps three years ago with a young team; last year we put it together. We had a really nice team, but we learned there was another level that to be a champion,” Carlin said. “That just motivated us for the next 365 days. We had a picture of City High holding the 4A state trophy in my classroom and in our dugout for the last year, and every day the kids walked by and looked at it and just knew they had to put in a little more.”​

More: Iowa high school state baseball tournament 2026: Scores, brackets

After Thursday night’s state semifinal win over Valley, Carlin said he wanted to keep things as normal as possible in preparation for the state title game.

​“We’re going to eat a good dinner, let them sleep a little bit, have a good breakfast, and then go lift,” Carlin said. “Some of our staff will stay, get a good scouting report done, and then we’ll go ahead and go through the same routine that we’ve done for every game.”​

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But what Carlin forgot to mention was his team would get a chance to take a tour of Carver-Hawkeye Arena and shoot some hoops – that’s how they finished their preparation before arriving at Veterans Memorial Stadium.​

And it turned out the pregame shootaround worked well and Indianola rushed out to a 5-0 lead after the first two innings.

But slowly Pleasant Valley began to make noise. Dawson Bales blasted a solo home run in the top of the third, and it ignited the Spartans. Mason McCaw singled to bring in Jackson O’Melia, and it was suddenly 5-2.​

But Indianola answered right back. Brody Merema doubled to bring in two runs in the bottom of the third, and a wild pitch scored Dallas Harlan. Things looked stable again for the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

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More: VOTE: Most outstanding player at 2026 Iowa state baseball tournament

But in the top of the sixth, the Spartans put pressure on Indianola pitcher Jackson Foust, ending his outing after 5 ⅔ innings and 79 pitches.​ Gavin Barber singled to bring in a run, then on a deep hit to right field, Bales came through again with a bases-clearing, three-RBI double. Pleasant Valley has all the momentum and was only down two runs, 8-6.​

Indianola used three pitchers in the sixth, from Foust to Joey Crabb, who went just six pitches, and then finally Jacob Orey, who got Indianola out of the sixth-inning jam. Pleasant Valley left two on after Orey struck out Evan Barr, but with an inning left, the game was far from over.

​”We were trying to stay after it, win every pitch,” said Pleasant Valley coach Derek Stecklein. “At that point, don’t worry about what happened earlier in the game, and focus on where we were and focus on every pitch.”

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Indianola added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth as Benge added to his three-RBI day, sending out a home run to the left field patio seats.

“I was so excited, got the barrel extended, and I didn’t even feel it off the bat,” he added.​

More: Des Moines Register seeks fall high school sports intern

That final run was all Indianola needed to secure its first state title. While the 27 players on the roster are thrilled with their accomplishment, they’re even more excited to finally bring a state title back to the nearly 17,000 people who reside just south of Des Moines.

“Indianola is a type of town where you get sucked in, and you don’t want to leave because it’s such a tight-knit community that has each other’s backs and is so supportive of you, and a baseball town,” Carlin said.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Indianola tops Pleasant Valley, wins program’s first Iowa baseball state title