BOONEVILLE – Ben Van Cleve was a combined 6-for-9 with a home run and Brant Blaylock and Hayden Leatherwood also went yard as Northwest pounded out 27 hits and scored 20 runs in a sweep over Northeast Wednesday afternoon at Harold T. White Field.

Winners in 17 of its last 20, Northwest improved to 29-11 overall and 19-7 in MACJC play and clinched a first-round home playoff series May 10-11. Northeast fell to 21-20 overall and 12-14 in conference action.

Northwest had a season-high 17 hits in the opener, led by Van Cleve's 5-for-6 outburst and home runs No. 12 and 13 for Leatherwood.

The Rangers will wrap up the regular season on Saturday, May 5 at East Central. First pitch of the twinbill is 4 p.m. (was 2 o'clock). Live video and live stat links will be available through nwccrangers.com.

Game 1 – Northwest 12, Northeast 8

Trailing 2-0 after one, Northwest took the lead for good in the third on Van Cleve's solo blast to straight-away center and added five runs in the fifth to pull away for a game one win.

Blaylock's leadoff walk in the fifth setup Leatherwood's two-run home run to right-center and Jake Tyrone and Dakota Dailey followed with RBIs to make it 9-3 Northwest.

The teams traded off runs in the seventh and eighth, with Leatherwood going yard again and both Tanner Leggett and Brooks Boolos adding RBI-doubles.

Northeast got it to 12-8 in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI-groundout and solo homer from Colt Chrestman.

Ian Hawkins closed the door in the eighth and ninth to extend his 10.2 scoreless inning streak. Kyle Moore went six innings, allowing four runs on nine hits to move to 4-1.

Van Cleve was a career-high 5-for-6 to pace a 17-hit attack. Hunter White was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and Leatherwood had two bombs and three RBIs.

Game 2 – Northwest 8, Northeast 5

Seven different Rangers picked up a hit in the nightcap and Reed Logsdon improved to 5-2 on the bump in five solid innings to close out a two-game sweep over the Tigers.

Northwest led 3-0 after one thanks to a two-run single by White and Boolos RBI-single, but the Tigers would answer with three of their own in the second to tie the game at 3-3.

A leadoff triple for Blaylock to start the third, followed by Leatherwood's ground-rule double, put the Rangers back on top 4-3. Boolos would provide his third run-scoring hit and Dailey drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 6-3 Northwest.

Northwest added single runs in the fourth and sixth to stretch the lead to 8-4 and Reed Harding would toss the final two frames, allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts, to close out the sweep.

Blaylock, Leatherwood and Boolos all had multiple hits in the victory.