Nemaha Central Thunder moved to .500 on the season and picked up their first Big Seven league wins on the season as they swept Royal Valley in a double header on the baseball diamond on Thursday winning 11-5 and 13-3.

The day started with Nemaha Central claiming the 11-5 victory, but they found themselves down before they even had an opportunity to bat in the first contest. Panthers senior, Jon Cox blasted a two-run homer to left field in the first inning to give Royal Valley the early 2-0 lead, but Nemaha Central responded with two of their own in the bottom of the first to tie the game. The Thunder gained the lead in the third with a single and Panthers error to lead 3-2 and added two more in the fourth as Matt Haverkamp had an RBI double and came around to score on a wild pitch, giving the Thunder the 5-2 advantage.

That lead was cut to one in the top of the fifth as Royal Valley moved the score to 5-4 behind a two RBI single by Weston Hasty. Nemaha Central responded and took firm control of the game behind a six-run sixth inning; Alex Rottinghaus, Ross and Evan Hermesch all had RBI singles in the inning, sprinkled in with multiple other plays for the Thunder giving them the 11-4 lead at the point.

Panthers with one final time to get back into got a leadoff double by Travis Burget and he came around to score on a sacrifice fly to make it 11-5, but the threat by Royal Valley ended there and Nemaha Central claimed the first game of the double header. Devin Henry notched the pitching victory in the first contest for the Thunder.

In the nightcap it was Nemaha Central taking the lead early and never relinquishing it grabbing the 13-3 win in six innings, although Royal Valley kept the game close early.

Nemaha Central took the early lead as Dustin Rottinghaus single in the bottom of the first and came around to score on a Panther error and the Thunder added another run in the second with an RBI single by Alex Rottinghaus, to lead 2-0.

That lead was cut to one in the top of third as Burget for Royal Valley had an RBI triple scoring Derrick Barger who led the inning off with a walk, making it 2-1 Nemaha Central, as the Panthers capitalized on a base runner in the game after stranding a few early in the game.

After a quick bottom of third by Nemaha Central and top of the fourth by Royal Valley the offensive door opened wide for the Thunder as they plated four runs in the fourth, added five in the fifth and ended the game with a pair of runs in the sixth inning, capitalizing on Panther mistakes during all three innings to grab the 13-3 win.

Matt Haverkamp, Alex Rottinghaus and Dustin Rottinghaus all had multi-hit games. Haverkamp finished 2-2 with two runs scored, two walks and an RBI, while Alex was 2-4 with two runs scored and reached on an error. Dustin finished 2-4 also with two runs scored, a triple, RBI, walk and reached on an error. Cody Rottinghaus picked up the pitching victory going four and one-third inning giving up three runs on six hits, three walks and struck out seven; Eric Sperfslage finished the game on the mound.

Royal Valley in the loss had a solid game by Burget who was 2-2 with a triple, RBI, run scored and walk; while Noah Hart, Zach Lux, Brooks McClane and Garrett Schultz each had a hit on the hit, too.

With the two wins Nemaha Central moved to 4-4 on the season and Royal Valley fell to 1-7 on the year with the losses. Up next the Thunder turn their attention to a matchup against Riverside on the road on Monday and Royal Valley will host Santa Fe Trail on Monday in league action, too.