GOODMAN – Northwest officially clinched a spot in this year's baseball state playoffs on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep at Holmes by 8-0 and 7-6 scores and is in good shape to wrap up homefield advantage in the first round.

Northwest pushed its win streak out to nine games over Holmes and improved to 24-13 overall and 15-7 in the north division. Holmes fell to 17-23 overall and 7-13 in the division.

Dylan Castoria, who signed on Wednesday with MVSU, hit solo homers in the first and third to give starting pitcher Cody Reed all the run support he would need in a game one win.

Northwest blew the game wide open in the fifth with a six-run frame, scoring all six runs with two outs.

Jordan Barnes delivered an RBI-single with the bases loaded and was followed by RBI hits from Chase Clark, Kramer Hollenbach and James Lear to make it an 8-0 game after five.

Reed (6-2) allowed just two hits, struck out five and walked three in 6.0 innings of work for the win, while Tanner Cable tossed the final inning and allowed one hit.  

Northwest scored runs in each of the first four innings in game two and jumped out to a 6-0 lead.

But Holmes made things very interesting the final two innings after Matt Ferguson left the mound and was one pitch away from possibly sending the game into extra innings.

An RBI-single by Jordan Taylor and sac fly from Trey Goff pulled the deficit to 7-2 for Holmes after six and Tyler Scholl came on to close things out with a comfortable lead.

Scholl struggled to find the strike zone, however, giving up an RBI-single and hitting four batters which quickly turned a five-run lead into 7-5 with the bases loaded and nobody out. Tanner Densford then came on and surrendered a sac fly which made it 7-6 before inducing a game-ending double play to second to escape with the win.

Ferguson went 6.0 innings, scattering five hits, two runs, two walks and two strikeouts to improve to 6-2 on the year, while Densford picked up his first collegiate save.

Eight different Rangers had a hit in the game two win, led by Barnes who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Tucker Smith added a pinch-hit single in the seventh.     

Northwest out-hit Holmes 16-11 in the sweep, led by three hits each by Lear, Castoria and Barnes.

The Rangers will close out north division play on Tuesday, April 23, welcoming East Mississippi to Senatobia for a 4 p.m. first pitch. Northwest can clinch the north's No. 2 seed with a sweep.

Watch live at www.ihigh.com/nwccrangers with Kevin Maloney on the call. Fans can also follow along with live stats for the doubleheader at www.sidearmstats.com/northwestms/baseball.