It is safe to say the Red Devils were seeing the ball well in their home sweep of Highland Community College on Thursday.
The Red Devils blasted 14 total home runs over the two games with Aaron Mason, Sky-Lar Culver and Robby Enriquez each connecting on a trio of long balls.
“I was just trying to keep it simple,” Culver said. “That was the first time (I’ve ever hit three in one day), high school too. The ball was coming off the bat well.”
Despite the offensive fireworks, Allen Community College coach Clint Stoy said that he was most pleased with the work done by his starting pitchers with sophomores Chase Gooding and Jake Butterfield as each improved on undefeated records this season.
“Our starters really gave us a chance to keep our momentum building by getting us into the dugout quickly,” Stoy said. “I was more impressed with our pitching today, than I was with the offense.”
Gooding is now 3-0 after a five-inning complete game in the 18-3 game one win.
The North Dakota native allowed two earned runs on three hits and struck out 10.
The Red Devils were never held to less than three runs in an inning in game one with six in the first, three in the second, five in the third and four in the fourth.
Mason and Enriquez each had two home runs in the first game while Mason Gifford, Nate Williams and Culver also went deep.
“We squared balls up and I have said it from the beginning that we can hit one through nine,” Stoy said. “I don’t like defensive players, I like offensive players who can play defense so that was huge for us.”
Butterfield got the game-two start and ran his record to 6-0 with the 20-11 victory.
The Osage City product threw six innings and only allowed one run on five hits while striking out ten.
The offenses were silent until the top of the third inning when Highland grabbed a 1-0 lead, but in the home half of the inning, Allen responded with six runs of their own to take a big lead.
The Red Devils added five more in the fourth, two in the fifth and four in the sixth to push the margin to 17-1 going into the seventh inning.
Highland was able to avoid the run-rule with seven runs off of Allen freshman Jonathan Walker in the seventh frame.
“Our guys are on pitch counts. It is March so sometimes I have to go to the bullpen and unfortunately we gave up ten runs late,” Stoy said. “But those guys are learning to compete and we need them to help save the rest of the pitching staff’s arms.”
