The Briar Cliff baseball team pushed their record to 8-3 as they swept Valley City State in a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon in Elkhorn, Nebraska. The Chargers tallied 18 hits between the two contests.
 
"It's not easy to sweep a team in a four-game set", said head coach Corby McGlauflin. "We were able to make enough plays to get it done. We have great momentum heading into the spring-break trip."
 
The Chargers carry a four-game win streak with back-to-back doubleheader sweeps of VCSU.
 
Game 1 – W, 6-3
Matt Hmielewski shut down the Vikings in top of the first inning. Hmielewski and the Charger defense went one-two-three behind a strikeout and two fly outs.
 
BC hopped on the board in the bottom of the first inning following a Trey Rogers single and two Viking errors. Connor Lange put the ball in play, tallying an RBI to get the scoring started.
 
VCSU answered in the top of the second, tying the game at 1-1 as they found three hits and the Charger defense committed one error.
 
After a scoreless third inning, VCSU knocked back-to-back triples, granting them to 2-1 advantage.
 
The Cliff responded with a huge fourth inning. Briar Cliff recorded four hits and the Vikings suffered an error, allowing five BC runs to cross the plate. Jake Chronic, Rogers, and Cam Riemer all carded singles, while Lange found his second hit of the game, sending a double to right field and pushing the score to 6-1 in BC's favor.
 
The Charger defense kept the Vikings scoreless until the top of the seventh. VCSU found one run in the frame trying to complete the comeback. The Charger defense stood strong, recording a ground ball double-play and strikeout to end the game.
 
Hmielewski picked up his second win of the season on the mound, going 6.0 innings with nine strikeouts. Rylan Aamold appeared in the last inning and closed the door with a strikeout. The two combined for no walks in the game.
 
As a team, the Chargers tallied seven hits and seven walks. BC held the advantage in strikeouts (5-10), walks (7-0) and RBI's (6-2).
 
Rogers led the way with two hits and two RBI's as five other Chargers carded a hit in game one.
 
Game 2 – W, 10-7
Kyler Steinborn started game two on the mound for the Chargers. Steinborn struck out two in the top of the first and let the BC offense go to work.
 
In the bottom half of the first frame, Rogers doubled to lead off and was followed by a walk and stolen base by Riemer. Lange was hit by a pitch to load the bases with Quentin Evers and Matthew Delgado due up. Evers and Delgado both carded RBI singles making the score 2-0.
 
After a scoreless second, VCSU pushed one run across in the third inning behind two hits and a Charger error.
 
BC would later respond with a scoring frenzy in the bottom of the fourth. After back-to-back Viking errors, Rogers beat out a hit right back to the pitcher. Riemer then roped an RBI single to left field. Two batters later, Evers found the only big fly of the day, sending a three-run homerun to right field, pushing the BC lead to six.
 
VSCU found three runs of their own in the top of the fifth behind two singles and a two-run homer from Jaden Babiuk.
 
Briar Cliff answered with two more runs in the fifth. After singles from Easton Cone and Jared Sitzmann, Lange roped an RBI double to right field and put the BC lead back to five.
 
The Vikings loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning but could only find two runs as Austin Carter got out of the jam with a ground ball double-play and a strikeout.
 
The Charger offense wasn't done just yet as they responded once again with one run of their own in the sixth. Following a walk, Viking error, Jake Chronic pushed the Chargers' 10th run across the plate on a wild pitch.
The Vikings tallied three hits in the final frame hoping for a come-from-behind win. VSCU carded one run as Carter found two more strikeouts to end the game 10-7.
 
Steinborn picked up his second win of the season on the bump for the Chargers. Steinborn went 5.0 innings, allowing six hits and six runs, while striking out six. Carter chucked the final 2.0 innings, allowing three hits and a single Viking run, while striking out three.
 
BC's offense held the advantage in strikeouts (5-9), walks (6-1) and RBI's (8-5).
 
The Charger offense tallied 11 hits in game two. Evers led the way with three hits, a homerun, and four RBI's. Rogers carded two hits as six other Chargers recorded one hit apiece.
 
The Charger baseball team will begin their six-game spring break trip on Wednesday as they travel south to take on Texas A&M Texarkana in Texarkana, Texas in a single seven-inning game at 3 p.m.