The Powell Pioneers swept the visiting Lewistown Redbirds 10-3 and 9-1 on Sunday to open the home schedule and improve their early season record to 3-1.

POWELL 10, LEWISTOWN 3

A warm, sunny day greeted the Pioneers (3-1) to open their home campaign against the Redbirds (0-2).

Powell came out strong, with Brock Johnson leading off with a single. He advanced to second on a balk, before getting caught stealing third.

Jhett Schwahn then got on via a walk, before a Cade Queen triple brought him in to make it 1-0.

Queen scored on a passed ball, before Trey Stenerson was walked.

Stenerson advanced to second on a wild pitch, and got to third after tagging up on a fly ball.

He then scored on a wild pitch, giving Powell a 3-0 lead after the first inning.

Unfortunately for Powell, that was the only offense until the third inning.

Stenerson and Dalton Worstell both singled to get on before an error on Cole Fauskee’s hit loaded the bases with no outs.

Aiden Greenwald grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Stenerson before Ethan Welch singled to bring in Worstell and extend the advantage to 5-0.

Lewistown got on the board in the fourth, after a walk and a home run cut the lead down to 5-2.

Powell held off any more scoring in that inning, but Lewistown added one more in the fifth to tighten the gap to 5-3, ending Jacob Gibson’s relief effort in his first action of the season.

“I think if we give him a couple more outings he’ll be back to his old self,” manager Jason Borders said, noting that Gibson is returning after he recently suffered an injury.

After the lull in scoring, Borders said the Pioneers need to figure out how to score more consistently rather than scoring in outbursts throughout the contest.

“I don’t know if we put it into cruise control or what,” Borders said. “We’ve always talked about winning each inning … We need to figure it out and be better throughout the game.”

In the sixth, Worstell got into a bases-loaded jam with only one out, but struck out the final two batters to escape with no damage done.

In the bottom half of the inning the Pioneers got insurance runs, starting with a walk to Greenwald and a sac bunt by Welch to advance him.

Johnson reached on an error to put runners on the corners with only one out.

He stole second before Schwahn hit a double to bring in the pair and push the lead back out to 7-3.

Queen doubled to score Schwahn, before Stenerson singled to bring in Queen and make it 9-3.

Stenerson eventually stole second and third before Fauskee hit a double to cap off the scoring outburst and secure the victory at 10-3.

Three Pioneers pitchers — Johnson, Gibson and Worstell — combined for 14 strikeouts compared to seven walks and five hits.

Powell finished with 10 hits in the contest, only committing one error compared to four for the visitors.

POWELL 9, LEWISTOWN 1

In the second game of the doubleheader the visitors started out strong, with the Pioneers seeking more consistent play throughout the contest.

The visitors got on the board first, scoring on a wild pitch, which ended up being the only run of the game for the Redbirds.

Powell responded in the bottom half, led by a Johnson double and a Schwahn walk to put two on with no outs.

Both advanced on steals, before Johnson eventually scored on a passed ball during Stenerson’s at bat to make it 1-1 after the first.

Queen settled in on the mound, only allowing a walk over the next two innings before Powell took the lead.

Johnson and Schwahn walked, before Queen drove in the pair on a double to make it 3-1.

He then advanced to third on a wild pitch, before scoring after tagging up on a sac fly by Worstell to extend the lead to 4-1.

“We didn’t really have the lulls in that game that we had from the first one,” Borders said.

Gibson doubled to lead off the fourth, and advanced to third on a sac bunt by Jordan Loera.

He scored on a passed ball to extend the lead to 5-1.

Powell put the game away in the bottom of the sixth, starting with Worstell being hit by a pitch and stealing second and advancing on a Fauskee bunt that did not lead to an out.

Greenwald was hit by a pitch to load the bases, before Worstell scored during Loera’s at bat.

Johnson singled to reload the bases, and Schwahn was hit by a pitch to bring in another run to make it 7-1.

Queen singled to bring in a pair, capping off the scoring at 9-1.

Queen and Greenwald combined for 11 strikeouts on the mound and two walks, while only giving up three hits.

Powell committed no errors, while Lewistown committed one.

“We had one error on the day, our defense played great for both games,” Borders said. “We just gotta keep working at things.”

DOUBLE DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND

Powell will now get into a busier schedule this weekend, playing four games over two days for the first time this weekend.

That will start on the road in Billings on Saturday, taking on the Blue Jays (0-0) at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. in a doubleheader.

Powell then returns home on Sunday, taking on Green River (0-0) with tentative start times scheduled for 10 a.m. and noon, dependent on the forecast, which may push the games to early in the afternoon if weather is predicted to be colder.

“We are going to find out how good our pitchers are. We are going to have to stretch them out a little more,” Borders said. “Should be a fun weekend, we get to see some more guys on the mound. It’ll be nice to get four games in and see where our whole staff is at.”