JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Peak Prospects struggled to get the bats going in the first game Friday night.

In the second game, they led 9-1 going into the top of the seventh and final inning. They then scored so many runs that the scoreboard operator at Vivion Field couldn’t fit the seventh-inning total (12) on the line score.

The Peak Prospects are 6-5 heading into a pivotal home-and-away with Carroll this weekend. The Renegades are 5-8.

GAME ONE

Coe College sophomore Mike Bonner (L, 1-1) got the start and threw the whole game (six innings). Although he walked three batters and hit three more, he gave up just two runs on four hits and put the Peak Prospects right where they needed to be.

But Jefferson City gave up just three free bags and four hits. Third baseman Andrew Imgarten had a sacrifice-fly RBI in the bottom of the third, and second baseman Calen Kruger drove in an RBI double in the following inning. (Kevin Sanchez and Kam Durnin scored the runs.)

GAME TWO

Third baseman Alex Berreth (FR, NIACC) put Des Moines up 3-0 in the top of the third off a two-RBI home run, his first of the season.

Short stop Bubba Thompson (JR, Clarke University) had two three-RBI home runs in the game – one in the fourth to put Des Moines up 6-0, and the other in the seventh to cap off the aforementioned 12-run inning.

Catcher Liam Gilbert (FR, East Central CC), who had made his first appearance of the season the game prior and gone 2-3 at the plate, went 3-4 in the second game.

Thompson, Declan O’Hare (Cv-JR, Central College), and John Doty (SO, NIACC) all hit 2-4 en route to an 11-hit performance.

Des Moines’s defense also stranded the bases loaded twice against Jefferson City, including in the third inning when the Renegades loaded the bases with no outs.

Carter Thomas (FR, Wayne State [NE]) made his second appearance on the mound and second start, throwing three innings. Through eight innings of work, he has yet to give up a run.

MAGNOLIA STATE MAGIC

Prospects fans from last year may remember Leighton Jenkins and Eli Collins from East Central Community College (Decatur, MS).

After East Central’s playoff run came to a close this year in a World Series appearance, freshmen Liam Gilbert and Houston Wedgeworth made the trip from their hometown in Meridian.

Gilbert had traveled with the team Wednesday but started at first base and then catcher in Friday’s doubleheader, going for a combined 5-7 at the plate. Wedgeworth met the team in Jeff City on Friday and threw two innings in relief in the second game.

UP NEXT

Des Moines begins a home-and-away Saturday afternoon against Carroll at 5 p.m. CT with a single game at McBride Field.