Luke Trubee, Ryan Kemp, and Joe Becker put in great innings on the mound, and Stephen Hoendorf exploded for a pair of homers and 7 RBIs as the Rangers pulled out a DH sweep of the second-place Machine on Sunday, July 29 at Centerville high school.

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In game 1, the Rangers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first. With two outs, Ben Schooler and Ryan Kemp singled. Then Hoendorf deposited a fastball over the left-center field fence for a 3-run home run. The Machine got a run back in the bottom of the second on an RBI single from Eric Reardon. But the Rangers answered in the third inning as Hoendorf singled home Kemp to make it 4-1.

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The Rangers batted around in the top of the fourth. With two outs again, Rob Pederson and Schooler had RBI singles. Then Hoendorf took Machine starter Kevin Reynolds deep for a second time, another 3-run shot, to increase the lead to 9-1.  Reynolds singled home Mark Carpenter in the bottom of the fourth to make it 9-2.

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In the fifth, Nick Gilmore and Pederson had RBI base knocks to send the score to 11-2. The final two runs came in the sixth on a sac fly from Dominic Kuzujanakis and an RBI double from Eric Becker.

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Luke Trubee finally got off the schneid with offensive and defensive support to pick up his first win of the season. Trubee tossed 5 innings, allowing 5 hits, no walks and 4 punchouts. Ryan Kemp made his first appearance of the season, firing two scoreless innings of relief and striking out four.

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Joe Becker started game two and the Machine took out their offensive struggles in the first inning. Charles Brads, Paul Wilson, Reardon, and Reynolds all had RBIs as the Machine put together six hits to score 4 times. The Rangers got a pair of runs back in the bottom half of the first as Pederson doubled home a run, and Schooler followed with a run-scoring single.

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The Rangers took the lead in the bottom of the third. Brody Dunlevy led off with a single. After a one-out single from Gilmore, Pederson roped a 2-run double to tie the game. Kujo added his second sac fly of the day to give the Rangers a 5-4 advantage through three innings. A fielding miscue in the fourth allowed the Machine to tie the game once more.

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The score remained 5-5 going in to the bottom of the sixth. Machine ace Andrew Madlinger nailed Ben Schooler with a pitch and Kujo followed with a single, prompting a pitching change to bring in Paul Wilson. Eric Becker worked a 4-pitch walk to load the bases. Jonmarc Lippincott then followed suit with a bases-loaded walk, plating the go-ahead run. The Machine got a double play ball to stop any further damage and send the game to the top of the 7th.

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Madlinger singled to start the inning to put the tying run on base. Abdiel Torres-Vega put down a sac bunt to move Madlinger into scoring position. Joe Becker then buckled down and got Mark Carpenter and Brads to strike out swinging to end the game.

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Despite allowing 6 hits in the first inning, Joe Becker battled through the rest of the contest allowing just 3 more hits along the way to move to 5-3 on the season.

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