Bark River-Harris freshman Gabe Spear delivers a pitch against North Central on April 19, 2024 at North Central baseball field. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

HERMANSVILLE — Ethan Ives belting his first career home run was one of many offensive highlights as Bark River-Harris baseball earned a doubleheader sweep over North Central on Friday.

The Broncos claimed game one 18-9 and game two 11-1.

Game one

With a 14-9 lead in hand in the sixth inning, Ives stepped to the plate. He was 3-for-4 at that point, and took a pitch for ball one to start his fifth trip to the plate.

But the next pitch Ives saw was one that he will never forget. He truend on it, belted the ball toward centerfield and cleared the outfield fence. It was a solo home run to extend the lead to 15-9, but it was Ives’ first home run of his high school career.

“It felt amazing,” Ives said. “We knew we needed a few runs to put the game away and I just kept a level swing and drove it out.”

BR-H tacked on three more runs in the inning to claim an 18-9 lead whch stood for the win.

But Ives blast and the four-run outburst in the sixth inning wasn’t the lone highlight of the night.

The Broncos burst out of the gate to plate. Thanks to a pair of pokes from RBI Jacob Mileski, RBI singles from Ives, Troy Johnson and Lucas Hall and a two-run double from Dominick Langtange, the Broncos lead 7-0 after the first inning.

“We have been hitting the ball hard,” Ives said. “Everyone is confident when they get up to the plate, and we are all making good contact.”

Ives finished 4-for-5 and stole five bases to go with a trio of RBI and a trio of runs scored.

“Ethan has been hitting the ball well,” Broncos coach Al Botwright said. “He’s the engine that drives our offense, and he’s our lead-off hitter for a reason.”

Manny Oswald finished 5-for-5, scored twice, drove in two runs and stole a base.

Hall, Langtange and Dane Schmitt each had multi-hit games and combined to steal four bases. Ben Shiverski and Charlie Guenette swiped four bags each

Game two

Similar to game one, the Broncos wasted little time jumping to an early lead. Ives, Mileski and Gabe Spear all tallied RBI hits as part of an eight-run outburst in the opening inning.

Schmitt then proceeded to dazzle on the mound, bottling the Jets to one earned run off two hits and 10 strikeouts in four innings.

“I’ve been working really hard on my mechanics,” Schmitt said. “I tweaked one thing before the game and it clearly worked really good.”

Ives and Mileski each finished 2-for-2 and combined to drive in three runs and score three times. Hall tallied two RBI.