TOPEKA, Kan. – The UW-Superior baseball team dropped a pair of games to Grinnell, 14-7 and 13-2 in seven innings, at Bettis Family Sports Complex Saturday.
 
Grinnell broke open a 5-5 game with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning of the first game and didn't look back, plating 12 runs in the second and third innings of the second to complete the sweep. The doubleheader featured featured six home runs, including four from the Pioneers in the opener.
 
The Yellowjackets plated four in the top of the third inning in game one to take a 5-4 advantage. Cory Albertson (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) doubled to right, scoring Ben Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) with one out in the inning before Bryce Flanagan (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) followed with a two-run homer to left-center field. Next up, Nick Shea (Pengilly, Minn./Greenway) launched one over the left-field wall for the lead.
 
Matthew Inaba hit a solo homer to tie the game 5-5 in the fourth, and Grinnell (4-2) put the game out of reach in the fifth.
 
Zach Bennett (Corona, Calif./Santiago) (0-1), on in relief of Ryan Rodriguez (Chaska, Minn./Chaska) to begin the frame, allowed the first four Pionners to reach. Chad Koehler coaxed a bases-loaded walk to give Grinnell a 6-5 edge, and Bennett fanned the next two hitters, looking like he may wriggle out of trouble. Quinton McNitt, though, then lined a bases-clearing, three-run double down the left-field line for the biggest blow of the inning.
 
Grinnell then scored two more in the sixth and single runs in the seventh and eighth innings for the win. 
 
The middle of the UWS lineup of Albertson, Flanagan and Shea went 6-for-15, with two home runs, three doubles and four RBIs. 
 
Grinnell's Ryan Jungers (1-0) picked up the win on the mound for the Pioneers with three innings of two-hit relief.
 
Brock Weirather limited the 'Jackets to four hits and two runs over six innings in the nightcap. Grinnell took advantage of four UWS errors to erase a 1-0 deficit in the second inning with seven runs in the bottom of the inning and five more in the bottom of the third.
 
Five players scored multiple runs and three had multiple hits for Grinnell to complete the doubleheader sweep.
 
The same two teams square off in another doubleheader Sunday at 11 a.m.