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Marietta College head coach Brian Brewer doesn't feel like his team has played its best baseball yet but that might be a bit hard to believe for the rest of the Ohio Athletic Conference.
The Pioneers swept a doubleheader from Capital University Wednesday night at Don Schaly Field at Pioneer Park to notch their 13th and 14th victories in their last 15 attempts and improve to 30-9 overall on the season.
Marietta scored 14 times in the first three innings en route to a 15-4 win in the opener and then downed the Comets 9-4 in the night cap behind seven no-hit innings from starting pitcher Kail Hill.
"I thought in game one we played really well offensively and had a little lapse their towards the end and in game two it was the opposite," said Brewer. "We weren't as good offensively but Kail (Hill) was really good. You're supposed to sweep at home and we were fortunate to tonight."
The Etta Express wasted little time getting things going in the opener as lead-off man Nick Bonnizzio doubled high off the wall in right field and came around to score when Alex Richter cleared the wall near the same spot for a two-run homer.
The Pios ended up sending 10 hitters to the plate in the opening inning to score six times off of Capital starter Noah Bromberg.
Marietta added two more runs in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly by right fielder Cole Rieman and a run-scoring single by catcher Ben Kaplin.
The Pioneers matched their first inning out-put in the third as they blew things wide open by scoring six more times to chase Bromberg and claim a commanding 14-0 lead.
Shortstop Cole Yeager got the inning started by being hit by a pitch and Bonnizzio followed with his second double of the game.
Richter was making his first start in more than a week after suffering a hamstring injury and showed no rust at all as he pounded a double into the gap in left center field to score both runners,
By the time the third was complete the Pioneers had sent 12 hitters to the plate with Rieman delivering a two-run single and first baseman Austin Amburgey plating another with a sacrifice fly.
While the MC hitters were rolling so was Pioneers starting pitcher Trent Valentine who held the Comets scoreless over the first five innings surrendering only a fourth-inning single to Cade Anderson.
Capital finally got to Valentine in the sixth as they scored three times thanks to an RBI double by Ty Clifton and a two-run base-hit by first baseman C.J. Rockwell.
The Pioneers scored what would be their final run in the last of the fourth as Ty Davis legged out a triple and came into score on Valentine's hit.
Valentine earned the win to improve to a perfect 6-0 on the season while Dawson Pierce came on to finish the game for the winners.
Hill got the start in the second game and the former Marietta Tiger would not benefit from the same offensive output that Valentine did but was brilliant on the mound none the less.
The right-hander allowed more than one base runner to reach base in the same inning only once as he used 90 pitchers to hold the Comets hitless thru seven innings.
"I was trying to mix speeds as often as I could and was able to get in on some guys with my fastball and move it away," said Hill, who also has four saves to his credit in his senior season. "I wanted to finish it but I guess that's just the competitor in me but I knew the guys who came in after me were going to do the job."
Marietta took the lead in the bottom of the second on back-to-back doubles by Amburgey and Yeager but would not score off of Capital starter Kyle Bowles again until breaking things open with five runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Bonnizzio drew a base on balls to start the inning and Brett Carson and Davis followed with singles to make it 2-0.
Kaplin brought in a run with a sacrifice fly and Yeager picked up an RBI on a fielders choice.
Left fielder Zach Marzetz delivered an RBI hit to cap the inning with the Pioneers in front 6-0.
Hill fired a perfect seventh inning and the Pios added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh.
With Hill nearing his pitch limit, Brewer elected to replace him on the mound with Forrest Havanis to begin the eight inning.
The decision to remove Hill was not a hard one for the Pioneer skipper.
"He had enough pitches where he was not going to get through nine so it wasn't tough," said Brewer. "Everybody is on some kind of a pitch count this time of year and we've got bigger fish to fry."
Capital finally collected their first hit of the game in the top of the ninth when pinch hitter E.J. Santana singled sharply to left field off of reliever Noah Perkins.
The Comets would go on to score four times in the ninth before Gabe Torres came into the game to get the final two outs to secure the win.
Hill walked three and hit a pair of Comet hitters while fanning four as he improved to an impressive 9-2 on the season.
"Kail has had an outstanding year between what he did for us early on out of the pen and now what he has done for us in the rotation," said Brewer. "He's had a really special year for sure and he's been a life saver for us on the bump."
The Pioneers improved to 14-4 in OAC play and appear to be hitting their stride at the right time with tournament play on tap next week.
"We feel really good about where we are at and I really don't think we have played our best baseball," said Brewer. "We know what the ceiling is on this team and we are not near it so we just have to get better everyday and everything will take care of itself next weekend."
Marietta will travel to Otterbein on Sunday for their regular season finale.