SENATOBIA – Behind a pair of grand slams from Tanner Booth and Ben Van Cleve in Game 1 and a Garrett Riggs walk-off winner in the nightcap, No. 11 Northwest closed out the home portion of its schedule with a sweep of East Central on Saturday afternoon.

The Rangers improved their record at Jim Miles Field to 18-2 while improving to 31-9 overall and 20-6 in the MACJC. East Central dropped to 20-19 and 13-11 in conference play.

Northwest clinched a best-of-3 hosting slot in the Region 23 playoffs on May 9-10 against an opponent to be determined, while also posting its third consecutive 30-win season and sixth in seven years.

Northwest will close out the regular season slate on Friday, May 3 at 6th-ranked Pearl River in Poplarville. 

Game 1 – Northwest 16, East Central 2 (5 inn.)

Northwest scored 11 combined runs over the second and third innings to help put the opener away early, capturing the five-inning run-rule victory.

After the Rangers got a run in the first when Brayland Skinner scored off a wild pitch, Northwest would get five in the bottom half of the second, thanks to RBI-singles from Skinner and Hayden Leatherwood, followed by an RBI-groundout from Hammer Franks and two runs scored off a wild pitch.

Northwest would keep things going by adding six in the bottom of the third, starting with Tanner Leggett's sac fly RBI and Hammer Franks hit by pitch with the bases loaded.

Van Cleve would provide the biggest highlight in the bottom of the third however, as his grand slam and ninth homer of the year made it a 12-1 advantage for the Rangers.

Like he did in the top of the second, Ken Scott would knock another solo homer in the top of the fourth to get the Warriors another run, but the Rangers responded with four more in the bottom half of the inning off Booth's grand slam to pull the lead back at 16-2.

Northwest outhit East Central 7-4 in the contest, with six Rangers earning at least one hit. Bradley Smith led the way at the plate by finishing 2-for-2.

Parker Stinnett improved to 6-2 with five strikeouts and two earned runs over five innings of work. The Warriors cycled through five pitchers, with Thomas Boothe allowing four earned runs on three hits to earn the loss.

Game 2 – Northwest 3, East Central 2 (8 inn.)

After withstanding a late rally from the Warriors that forced extra innings, Riggs played the hero role with his bases-loaded walk-off single with two outs in the eighth to seal the sweep for the Rangers.

With the scoring relatively quiet through the first five innings, Van Cleve provided the only spark with a solo home run in the bottom of third to make it a 1-0 lead for the Rangers.

East Central tied things up in the top of the sixth with Dakota Kennedy's RBI-single through the left side, only to see Northwest retake the lead off a bases loaded hit by pitch in the bottom half of the inning.

Evan Keith would get a leadoff single in the top of the seventh and would score the tying run with two outs off a bunt single from Anderson Shelley, forcing extra innings.

East Central could get nothing going in the eighth inning, but the Rangers would load the bases thanks to an intentional walk to Leatherwood and two hit batters, setting up Riggs' walk-off single through the right side.

Dalton Fowler scattered eight strikeouts against a walk and an earned run, as Colton Peel would get the win in relief by allowing two hits and an earned run to improve to 3-0 on the season.

Northwest was outhit 6-5 in the contest with Leatherwood, Van Cleve, Smith, Riggs and Kelton Hall finishing with one apiece.