NO. 10 HAWKS SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER WITH MOUNT MARTY UNIVERSITY JV

NORFOLK, Neb. – The newly-minted No. 10 ranked Northeast Community College baseball team began their home schedule Tuesday with a doubleheader against Mount Marty University JV at Norfolk Veterans Memorial Field in Norfolk. The Hawks were victorious in Game 1 by a final score of 7-0 before dropping Game 2, 9-2.

In Game 1 the Hawks (16-2) were led by their pitching staff who held the Lancers to just three hits. Taylor Gill (Orem, Utah), Zane Zielinski (Chicago, Ill.) and Connor Jeffers (Aubrey, Texas) all doubled and had two hits during the contest. Samuel Manwarren (Overland Park, Kan.) smashed his sixth home run of the season. Preston Tenney (Parker, Colo.) and Matt Dreher (Blair, Neb.) both gave up no hits in their appearances to extend the Hawks winning streak to 16 games.

Game 2 saw the streak get snapped as the Hawks struggled both offensively and defensively. Darius Hagen (Omaha, Neb.) crushed his first home run of the season, but that was just about the last of the Hawks offense on the day. Cooper Whitt (Knoxville, Tenn.) had an RBI in the fifth as the Hawks took their first loss since the first game of the season.

STAT SHEET GAME 1

•          Taylor Gill (Orem, Utah): 2-3, 2B, RBI, BB

•          Zane Zielinski (Chicago, Ill.): 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI

•          Connor Jeffers (Aubrey, Texas): 2-4, 2B, RBI

•          Preston Tenney (Parker, Colo.): 3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 6 K

STAT SHEET GAME 2

•          Darius Hagen (Omaha, Neb.): 2-3, HR, BB

•          Cooper Whitt (Knoxville, Tenn.): 1-2, RBI, BB

•          Chris Mazzini (Parker, Colo.): 3 IP, ER, 4 K

HEAR FROM THE HAWKS COACH

Head baseball coach Marcus Clapp's overall thoughts on the contests:

"Well, we didn't play well," Clapp said. "Even the first game. We won but we didn't play well. Too many walks again. Obviously, the second game too many errors. It was just a bad day all around. It doesn't matter who you're playing. If you don't show up to play, you're going to get beat.

Performances who Clapp thought stood out:

"I thought we obviously pitched fine in the first game," Clapp said. "We have to have our starters do a better job. It's that simple."

Clapp's thoughts what he wants to see from now until his team plays Lake Region State College this weekend:

"Get back to us." Clapp said. "I thought offensively we've done a really good job with our approach and staying middle. Today we didn't. We got big and we got long. We have to continue to work on that. We obviously have to continue to work on groundballs. It's not an excuse, but it's the second time we've taken ground balls on this field since November, so we have to get back to work and get after it again."

UP NEXT

The Hawks will have a busy weekend that will kick off with a doubleheader against Lake Region State College Saturday. The games are scheduled for 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at Norfolk Veterans Memorial Field in Norfolk.

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