CRESTON, IOWA -- What a crazy weekend of baseball Ellsworth and Southwestern CC had! The teams combined to score 119 runs, bang out 106 hits and slam 29 home runs, including 15 in one game, as the two conference foes slugged their way to a split of a four-game series. With the wind blowing out on Saturday, SWCC took advantage in a big way, crushing their way to a sweep, 14-11 and 35-23. That's right, the final in game two was 35-23! The linescore looked like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R
ECC 3 0 0 4 5 6 5 23
SWCC 7 3 5 6 3 1 10 35
That 10-run inning for the Spartans actually broke open a close two-run contest. The Panthers put 20 runs on the scoreboard over the final 4 innings.......and lost the game.
However, Ellsworth bounced back to get a pair of 10-run wins on Sunday, 15-5 and 13-3, to head back to Iowa Falls with a split of the marathon series.
Southwestern set the tone for the weekend by taking an 8-0 lead after 2 innings of the opener Saturday. ECC plated four runs in the 3rd and three in the 4th and 6th but came up short. Carlos Aranda, Trey Morris and Fabian Dumey all were 2-for-4 and Aranda, Kainoa Torres, Javier Melendez and TJ Truso each scored two runs. Aranda, Torres and Morris provided two-RBI games. SWCC pounded five home runs, a prelude to the next game when they went deep nine times.
The Panthers had a half-dozen homers of their own in game two, but couldn't come close to slowing down the Spartans' offense. Morris belted a pair of long balls and Aranda, Ybrahim Quevedo, Victor Lara and Dumey also homered. Six different Panthers -- Aranda, Torres, Morris, Lara, Dumey and Truso -- had two hits. Of the 23 runs for ECC, Ryan Boothe and Truso each scored four, and Aranda, Morris and Lara all crossed the plate three times. Five ECC pitchers combined to allow 27 hits, 29 earned runs and 13 walks.
Unfazed by what had happened to the pitching staff the day before, the Panthers Sunday got quality starts from Zach Carlsen in game one and Gavin Busby in the nightcap to avenge the two defeats on Saturday. And Bryce Hall had a day to remember at the plate. Hall homered in the first game, then added three more long balls in game two when he drove in seven runs. Torres had a home run in the opener and Aranda belted one the next game. ECC put the first game out of reach with a 5-run 7th. They had 15 hits, including two apiece by Aranda, Quevedo, Lara, Dumey, Melendez and Truso. Melendez knocked in a season-high six runs and Hall scored three. Carlsen went the first six innings on the mound and William Figueroa finished up.
Another huge 7th inning, this one with six runs, helped Ellsworth nail down the second-game victory. Hall's three round-trippers give him a team-leading 10 for the spring. The Panthers, after going deep 13 times in the series, now have a total of 41. Busby was solid on the hill, giving up only three hits and one earned run while striking out eight in his six-inning stint. Isaac Rohde followed with two scoreless innings and Cooper Johnson put the exclamation point on the sweep by striking out the side in the 9th.
Ellsworth (19-35) wraps up the regular season with a doubleheader at NIACC on Wednesday.