BASEBALL: Falcons' offense heats up against Dongola
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With temperatures in the thirties, Elverado's offense was the only thing heating up the diamond in Dowell in Thursday afternoon, as the Falcons notched their first win of the season with a 22-2 short-game victory over Dongola.
Eli Fennell allowed just two hits and struck out eight to pick up the pitching win, going all five innings for Elverado, walking four and allowing two earned runs. Every player in the Falcons' starting lineup not only reached base, but scored at least one run.
Bryce Mathis, Troy Stewart and Brian McClanahan all walked to start the bottom of the first for the Falcons after Fennell sent Dongola down 1-2-3 in the top half.
Christian Kistner put Elverado on the board with a sacrifice fly, then an error followed by a walk to Matt Miller led to Dakota Bayles' RBI single with one out. Fennell followed with another RBI single, and by the time the inning was over, 12 Falcons had batted and EHS held an 8-0 advantage.
Elverado piled on eight more runs in the second inning, with Hester driving in a run with a single and McClanahan clearing the bases with his RBI triple. McClanahan would end up scoring to make it 16-0 Falcons after two.
Miller drove in three more in the third with his triple as the Elverado offense continued to have their way with Dongola.
Meanwhile, Fennell allowed a pair of runs in the third, but settled down to retire his last eight batters in order, four going by way of the strikeout.
Mathis (1-2, 4 R, 2 BB), McClanahan (1-2, 3B, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 RBI), Collin Hester (1-2, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI), Miller (1-2, 3B, 2R, 3 RBI), Bayles (1-4, 2 R, RBI) and Fennell (1-4, 2 R, RBI) each recorded hits for EHS. Stewart (0-1, 3 BB, 3 R), Kistner (0-1, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI), and Wesley Ramsey (0-1, BB, 2 R) also reached base safely.
Mathis (2), Kistner (2), Stewart, Hesterr, Miller, Bayles, Ramsey and Jacob Jeschke stole bases for Elverado in the game.
The baseball Falcons are at home again on Friday, hosting Marissa at 4:30 p.m. in Dowell.