Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina has placed a premium on pitching and defense this season under new head coach Mark Roering.

That pitching plan continued to pay dividends on Monday.

Will Litton and Connor Nicpon combined to toss 12 shutout innings as Regina swept Tipton in a rain-shortened River Valley Conference doubleheader in Iowa City.

“We’ve really put a lot of emphasis on pitching and defense,” Nicpon said. “It helps as a pitcher when you can trust your defense to make a play.”

Litton tossed a complete game shutout in a 7-0 win in the opener and Nicpon worked five scoreless innings in a 5-0 five-inning Regina win in the nightcap.

Class 2A ninth-ranked Regina improved to 17-4 on the season and 11-2 in RVC play with the sweep.

Tipton dropped to 6-16 and 3-13 in RVC action.

“We’ve definitely been focusing on defense,” Litton said. “Our pitchers have really worked on throwing strikes and trying to help out our defense and our defense has helped out the pitchers.”
Litton scattered seven hits in his complete game shutout in the opener, striking out four.

The sophomore right-hander walked two and hit a batter but Regina played errorless defense behind Litton who improved to 4-0 on the season.

“I was just trying to locate and hit my catcher’s target,” Litton said. “I just wanted to fill up the zone.”

Jenson Berg, Carter Carolan and Trey Streb all had two hits for the Regals in the opener.

Carolan doubled twice and drove in a run, Streb scored three runs and Berg had an RBI and scored a run.

Alex Paul doubled and drove in three runs in the game-one win.

Nicpon and the Regal defense completed the sweep in the nightcap.

The senior right-hander allowed five hits but wiggled out of jams in the first, fourth and fifth innings to keep the Tigers off the board.

“It feels really, really good to get two tonight,” Nicpon said. “Hopefully we can finish the job against them on Thursday.”

Nicpon stranded two runners in the first inning after allowing a leadoff single and one-out walk.

He escaped trouble again when he got a strikeout with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

“My fastball was working and my curveball I had a few close ones that I didn’t land but my change up felt good,” Nicpon said. “Everything was clicking.”

Regina got all the runs it would need in the third.

Streb and Jack Gavin started a three-run Regina third with back-to-back singles.

A Paul sacrifice fly plated Streb and senior Tate Lynch broke the game opener with a two-run double.

Nicpon and the defense took care of the rest.

After back-to-back singles to start the Tipton fifth inning Nicpon got a ground ball to Gavin at shortstop that turned into a 6-4-3 double play.

“I just wanted to locate away and try to get a rollover,” Nicpon said. “I put my trust in the guys behind me that they were going to make a play.”

Regina, which leads the RVC north standings, hosts Class 1A second-ranked Sigourney on Tuesday and travels to Tipton on Thursday to complete the three-game RVC series with the Tigers.

This feels good tonight but we’ve still got a job to do,” Litton said. “We’ve got more conference games and we’ve got to try to get those wins.”

Game 1

Tipton                        000  000  0  –  0  7  3

Regina                        020  140  x  –  7  7  0

W – Will Litton                                  L – Jett Kamberling

2B – ICR: Carter Carolan (2), Alex Paul

Game 2

Tipton                        000  00  –  0  5  1

Regina                        030  10  –  4  4  1

W – Connor Nicpon

2B – ICR: Tate Lynch

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