#8 Eagles Go 3-0 Against Panthers
Fort Dodge/Iowa Falls, IA- Coming off two big wins against the #6 Southeastern Hawks on Wednesday, the Eagles were looking to keep their 4-game win streak alive against the Ellsworth Panthers. Due to weather issues, the games against Ellsworth were played in Fort Dodge on Saturday.
In the first game against Ellsworth, the Eagles got off to about as fast a start as you can. Lead-off batter, Ethan Bowers, hit a double to start the game, and then Brayden Hellum followed him up with a home run to bring them both home. Andrew Carroll would pitch a complete game for the Eagles, only allowing 5 hits, 1 run, and striking out 8 batters. With two outs in the top of the 5th, Hellum would hit a single and Clayton Campidilli would follow him up with a home run to make the score 4-1. Addison Binnie would add an RBI of his own after hitting a grounder for a single that would score Cal Sullivan and put Miles Risley at 3rd base. Owen Ross would then put an exclamation point on the game after hitting a home run that scored Binnie and Risley and put the game out of reach at 8-1.
Dylan Christensen would start on the mound for the Eagles in the 2nd game. The starting pitcher only allowed 1 hit over 5 innings while striking out 9 batters. The bats would stay hot for Kirkwood in this game. 6 different Eagles recorded RBIs in the game while 3 of them hit multiple RBIs. Miles Risley led the team with 4 RBIs and Addison Binnie put up three of his own, each of them would have home runs in this game. Kirkwood used a big 2nd and 4th inning to put the game out of reach for Panthers. In the 4th, the bases were loaded with 2 outs when Cal Sullivan hit a double scoring two runs. Miles Risley would then follow that up with a triple that would score two more runs. Kirkwood would take this game by a score of 12-0.
In the final game of the series, Kirkwood would score a staggering 21 runs with 5 different Eagles (Bowers, Hellum, Campidilli, Risley, Binnie) hitting home runs. They started the game off quickly once again scoring 8 runs in the top of the 1st inning. Both Addison Binnie and Clayton Campidilli would each have a team-high 5 RBIs in this game; Alex Ritzer, Ethan Bowers, and Brayden Hellum would each have 2; Cal Sullivan and Miles Risley would both have 1. Kirkwood would pile up 21 hits in the game compared to the Panther's 10. Ellsworth would be able to score 8 runs of their own, however, the game was never close to being close.
The #8 Kirkwood Eagles have two more series left in the regular season. They will take on NIACC at home on Wednesday in a doubleheader starting at 1 PM and then they have Marshalltown for a three-game series on Saturday and Sunday.
