Over the weekend, the Heartland Hawks decided to utilize the weather by adding a four-game series at home. The Moberly Area Community College Greyhounds traveled from Moberly, Missouri for two days of seven inning doubleheaders.

    The Hawks started off game one hot with strong performances at the plate and on the mound.  Leading off in the lineup and leading the team on offense, Bennett Summers, went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs. Providing the lead early was designated hitter, Dom Kooistra, with a two-run homerun in the first. The rest of the game stayed fairly quiet until the bottom of the 5^th when Charlie Linderman started things off with a double to center. The top of the lineup was able to add two more runs on a few more hits, increasing the lead to 5-2. The Hawks were able to add insurance in the final inning with six hits and five runs, ending the game with 13 hits in 28 at-bats. Sophomore, Jake Gimbel, secured the win for the Hawks on the mound throwing six innings. The left-handed pitchers faced 27 batters, giving up seven hits and two runs (zero earned), striking out seven and walking none. Kasey Griffin closed things up with a quick three batter inning with no runs and no hits with one strikeout. Heartland walked away from the first game with a 10-2 win over the Greyhounds and turned around for another seven innings quickly after.
    Game two started off quiet at the plate and stayed that way. Jimmy Anderson added the only spark for the Hawks with a two-run homerun in the bottom of the fourth in response to the Greyhounds two-run homerun in the same inning. Tyler Dowling and Devan Tupper split the game throwing four and three innings, respectively. The duo gave up nine hits and three earned runs while collecting six strikeouts to end the day. Heartland dropped the second game 2-4, but were ready for redemption the following day where Moberly Area returned to the Corn Crib for two more the next day.

    The Hawks wasted no time to get runs on the board day two as Chase Peterson contributed a triple with bases loaded, ending the first inning with the Hawks on top 3-0. Three more runs were added in the seven-inning game with Jake Troyner contributing two RBIs on his three at bats. The sophomore went 2-for-2 with a hit by pitch. Adding a hit to the teams total of five was shortstop Jimmy Anderson and leftfielder Kooistra. The batters showed some patience at the plate collected five total walks in their 18 at-bats. Trevor Rehnstrom started the day off on the mound throwing 5.2 innings. The defense was able to back him up with the Greyhounds accumulating 10 hits with only three runs. The sophomore struck out three batter and walked one through 27 batters faced. Tyler Ledvina finished game one with four batters faced, collecting one strikeout. The Hawks ended up on top over the Greyhounds with a 6-3 win.
    Hoping to take the last game of the series, Heartland was ready at the plate and on the mound. Ryan Anderson threw the complete five innings with 19 batters faced. The sophomore righty only allowed three hits in his outing with no runs and two strikeouts to end the day. The Hawks stayed consistent through game two of the day as J. Anderson had his 11^th homerun of the season with a two-run shot to left field. Troyner doubled to help get Kooistra home to end the inning with another run to extend the lead 3-0. Peterson and Troyner ended the game with two RBIs each. Collecting three hits apiece was J. Anderson and TJ Jakubowski with their team accumulating 13 hits total. Heartland baseball ended the seven-inning game in five with a 10-0 win over Moberly Area.

    Heartland will take the week to rest before returning to conference play next weekend. The Hawks will travel to Canton, IL to play Spoon River on March 27^th before returning to the Corn Crib the following day.