NIACC sweeps MCC-Maple Woods

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The NIACC baseball team swept a doubleheader from MCC-Maple Woods on Monday.

NIACC (3-0) won the first game 19-4 and took the second game 7-0 to complete a 3-game sweep to start the 2018 season.

The second game was shortened to four innings due to darkness.

It is the third time in the Travis Hergert era that the Trojans have started 3-0. They started 5-0 in Hergert's intial season in 2013 and started 9-0 in 2016. 

In the first game, the Trojans scored at least two runs in each of the first six innings of the seven-innng contest. They pounded out 15 hits, including home runs from Ben Fitzgerald and Cade Schares, to score their 19 runs.

Joey Werner and Fox Leum both had three hits for NIACC. Leum had three RBIs and Schares, Werner, Fitzgerald and Jimmy Brady all drove in two runs.

Tyler Lien (1-0) picked up the win for the Trojans. He pitched three innings allowing no runs on one hit with three strikeouts and four walks.

In the second game, NIACC scored two runs in the first inning and added five runs in the fourth inning.

Ezequias Encarnacion and Ben Komonsky both drove in three runs for the Trojans in the second game. Komonsky and Brady both collected two hits.

Tom Skoro picked up his first career win for the Trojans in the second game. Skoro tossed a 3-hit shutout with seven strikeouts and no walks.

NIACC returns to action Saturday and Sunday with a four-game series against Crowder College in Neosho, Mo.