EudoraNews.com

During the Cardinals' regular practice routines last week, head coach Dirk Kinney didn't like what he saw. In fact he wasn't sure his baseball team was up to the task of its next opponent or any opponent for that matter.

"The way we practiced last week, I wasn't sure we could beat anybody," Kinney said. "It just wasn't a good week for us."

As it turned out, he needn't have worried as the Cardinals traveled to Wellsville Thursday and took a week's worth of frustration out on the Eagles.

Eudora remained unbeaten and improved its record to 11-0 (5-0 on the road) with a pair of one-sided victories over the Eagles, 14-1 and 19-0.

The Cardinals burned through seven Wellsville pitchers by mashing out 21 hits, 11 for extra bases. The hit total included seven home runs from the Eudora lineup, including two from senior left fielder Luke Abel in game one, and a pair of two-run shots by Mark Abel and Kyle Brouhard in game two.

Senior Austin Calhoon got the first hit of his high school career in game two by putting a Scott Thompson fastball over the center field fence. The shot was good for two runs in the 13-run Cardinal second inning.

"He's a great kid," Kinney said. "That was a pretty big hit. He's worked hard all year and that was his first chance."

Sophomore pitcher Kelson Boyer went the distance in game one, allowing just one run on three hits with five strikeouts to improve his record to 3-0 on the year.

Brouhard went three innings in game two and allowed three hits.

The success on the mound put a smile on the head coach's face after the game, and reinforced a fundamental key to successful Cardinal baseball.

"When we throw strikes and let our defenders defend we are a fine high school baseball team," Kinney said. "It's as simple as that."

The wins were to have set up a Tuesday afternoon doubleheader with the Ottawa Cyclones, a team that sits in second place in the Frontier League and shares the Cardinals' undefeated record.

Unfortunately the match-up was postponed because of Tuesday's rain and was rescheduled first for Wednesday, and then for 4:30 p.m. Monday at Ottawa.

"We were a little disappointed," Kinney said. "But now it's going to be a tough couple of days with Ottawa and Central Heights in back-to-back doubleheaders. But we'll be ready."