The Niles baseball team took advantage of Edwardsburg errors and broke out offensively in posting a doubleheader sweep Thursday over the Eddies.

The Vikings rallied to win the opener, 4-3, and won game two, 13-3, in five innings.

In game one, Niles scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 4-3 lead. Drew Huffman walked with the bases-loaded to tie the game at 3 and Bryce Lake was hit by a pitch with the bases-load to give the Vikings the lead.

Winning pitcher Cody Thornton allowed three earned runs and seven hits over six innings. Lake pitched a perfect seventh to pick up the save.

Dalton Raymond’s two-run single highlighted a three-run fourth inning for the Eddies.

Wyatt Thornton was strong at the plate and solid on the mound in game two for Niles. Thornton doubled twice, homered and drove in three runs for the Vikings.

Thornton allowed three earned runs and four hits in picking up the win.

“He had a big day at the plate,” said Niles baseball coach Mike Vota about Thornton. “He swung it well and stayed short and he got to the baseball.

“Pitching, he still threw too many balls. He was behind in the count too much. One thing we preach to our guys is that we have get ahead (in the count) and stay down.”

The Vikings jumped out to a 9-2 lead after two innings with only four of those runs being earned. Edwardsburg, which committed five errors in the second game, also allowed two unearned runs in a three-run Niles fifth inning.

“That was out as bad defensively as we could play,” Edwardsburg baseball coach A.J. Gaideski said. “But Niles hit the ball too. I don’t want to take anything away from them.”

Alex Hardy had a two-run single in the Vikings four-run second inning and Cody Glick gave his team a mercy-run win in the fifth inning when he singled in a run to give the hosts a 13-3 lead.

“I thought we saw some good things out of our hitters,” Vota said. “We swung the bats pretty well in the second game.”

 

NILES 4-13, EDWARDSBURG 3-3

At Niles

First Game

Edwardsburg                        000     300     0 –3 7 1

Niles                                         100     003     x – 4 4 0

Jacob Kanaby (L), Mason Mitchell (6) and Zach Plummer; Cody Thornton (W), Bryce Lake (7-S) and Jason Hoida

2B: Plummer (E), Damion Pompey (E)

 

Second Game

Edwardsburg            020     10 – 3 4 5

Niles                            540     13 –13 11 0

Kev’on Taylor (L), Mason Mitchell (2) and Jesse Reinebold; Wyatt Thornton (W) and Cody Glick

2B: Wyatt Thornton 2 (N), Jordon Ham (N), Jason Hoida (N)

HR: Mitchell (E), Wyatt Thornton (N)

Varsity records: Edwardsburg 15-8, Niles 17-9