The Southeast Valley Jaguars JV-R baseball team got the rare opportunity to showcase their talents under the lights on a Friday night. With the varsity having an off night, the Jaguars JV-R team hosted the Nevada Cubs in Dayton. The home team took advantage, sweeping a doubleheader over their 3A opponent from Story County, 8-4 and 8-2 in front of a packed grandstand.

In the opener, Landon Vote took the hill and pitched 4 innings, striking out 6 and allowing no runs. Josiah Hefley took off his catcher’s gear, and pitched the 5th and 6th innings. Ethan Martin closed out the game for the Jaguars.

Offensively, SV initially struggled with the Nevada pitcher, but got to him in the 3rd, plating 3 runs. Martin and Colton Bachel each scored twice in the game to lead the Jaguars. Bachel had the big hit, with a double to the fence in the 6th.

The Jaguars also scored 8 runs in the nightcap. The top of the order did their job, as both Hefley and August Akins reached base twice, and scored twice. Caden Cramer led the hit parade with 2 singles in his 2 at bats.

Tucker Ollinger started on the bump, and Akins closed it out, each surrendering just 1 run to the Cubs. They struck out a combined 5 batters.

“I was most impressed with our defensive effort,” said JV-R Coach Roger Fritz. “Our pitchers threw outs, especially in game 2. Those guys aren’t going to strike out a lot of batters, but they throw pitches that the batters will hit to our fielders. We caught 7 fly ball outs in game 2, which is a tremendous number for a JV-R game.”

The Jaguars JV-R team moves to 2-1 on the year, with games this week at Sioux Central on Wednesday, and back at home on Friday against Manson-NW Webster. Both will be part of a JV-R, JV, Varsity tripleheader.