MT. CARMEL, Ill. -- The baseball Warriors used a similar 1-2 pitching combo of starter and reliever to sweep past Olney Central in a Great Rivers Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader on Friday at Fournier Field.
In the opener, 8th-ranked Wabash Valley used Jacob Frost and Luke Leverton to win, 3-1. In the nitecap, it was Agnel Miranda and Sam Mettert who teamed for a 4-1 victory over the Blue Knights.
The Warriors improved to 30-9 on the season and 15-2 in the GRAC with the wins. Olney Central fell to 24-13 and 6-7.
"The pitching was fabulous today," WVC manager Aaron Biddle said.
Frost got the win in the first game, to move to 6-1 on the season. He worked seven innings, giving the Knights just one run on six hits, while striking out nine. He gave way to Leverton who picked up his seventh save with two scoreless innings.
In the nitecap, Miranda's starter line was almost identical, allowing just one run and five hits over five innings, while fanning nine (He is also 6-1 on the year.). Sam Mettert took it from there, picking up save No. 4 with two scoreless frames.
The four Warrior hurlers did not issue a walk all day, in 14 innings of work.
A seamless starter-bullpen formula is what impressed Biddle the most.
"It is really hard to go with complete games against teams we play in this conference," Biddle said. "You have to have five or six guys to come in from the bullpen you can count on to throw strikes and get outs. We got that."
Meanwhile, the Warriors offense got just enough hits – 13 on the day (eight in the opener, five in the second game) – to score the runs it needed to win.
"We did just enough," Biddle said. "We got guys on all day. We had chances to blow some innings open but could not get a big hit. But we scrapped enough to get two wins. So, we will take it."
RBI singles by Richard Bonomolo, Jr. and Nicklas Williams gave Wabash Valley a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the opener.
After an Olney Central run in the sixth narrowed the margin to 2-1, the Warriors got the insurance run that secured the victory. Daniel Contreras' line drive hit made it 3-1.
In the second game, the host Warriors did not waste any time, scoring three runs in the first inning, with RBIs coming from Jorge Rodriguez (sacrifice fly) and Jon Legrande (triple).
Legrande added a SAC fly in the sixth, producing the final Warrior run of the day.
At the plate, Bonomolo and Contreras had two-hit games in the opener, while Williams and Legrande matched that in the finale.
Biddle's club has added a non-conference Monday, Apr. 10 home game against the Oakland City JV team to the schedule. The first pitch will be at 2 p.m. CDT.
Then on Tuesday, Columbia State (16-16) visits for a 2 p.m. contest. The two teams split a doubleheader on Mar. 14 in Tennessee.
The next GRAC series is against Kaskaskia (19-15, 8-7). A single game in Mt. Carmel on Thursday at 3 p.m. will be followed by a twinbill in Centralia on Saturday.