CENTRALIA, Ill. -- Wabash Valley inched closer to its' third consecutive Great Rivers Athletic Conference baseball title with a doubleheader sweep at Kaskaskia on Friday.
The sixth-ranked Warriors now have a three-game lead (on the loss side) in the standings with seven league games remaining. The 19-2 and 7-2 victories improved Aaron Biddle's team, winners of nine straight games, to 35-9 overall and 18-2 in GRAC play.
Kaskaskia fell to 20-18, and 8-10, with the losses.
The Warriors used a 10-run seventh inning to nail down the opener. In the nitecap, single runs in the sixth and seventh allowed them to ease away to the win.
Without a home run on the day, the WVC lineup still produced big numbers with an overall barrage of hits – 29 in all. Freshman centerfielder Richard Bonomolo, Jr. led the way with six hits in nine trips to the plate.
Bonomolo, the Bronx native who bats second in the order, continues to climb up the NJCAA leaderboard. He leads the team in hitting with a .462 average, the tenth highest figure in Division I. But he is proving equally adept on the bases as well. His 30 stolen bases – out of 31 attempts – is 11th best in the country.
Mack Mitchell and Nicklas Williams joined Bonomolo with three RBIs in the opener, while leadoff hitter Jon Legrande, Daniel Contreras and Luke Odden brought in two runs apiece.
Bruce Jellison was the only Warrior with multiple RBIs in the series finale, with two.
On the mound, righthander Agnel Miranda became the first seven-game winner on the pitching staff with the victory in Game 1. He tossed six innings of one-hit ball, striking out seven along the way while issuing only two walks. He is now 7-1 on the season.
Aidan Deakins finished in the seventh, giving up only one hit.
Game 2 starter Louis Phillipe Langevin won to move to 3-1 on the season, going four innings. Sam Mettert came on in the fifth and earned his fifth save with a three-inning stint.
Wabash Valley next plays on Thursday in a GRAC series against Rend Lake (18-21, 7-11). The single opening game is at Fournier Field in Mt. Carmel at 3 p.m. CDT, followed by a 12-noon Saturday doubleheader in Ina.