Good situational hitting and a dominant outing on the mound carried Ottawa baseball to a 10-0 win over La Salle-Peru on a rainy Thursday night at Huby Sarver Field, taking home the Illinois River Rivalry trophy and completing the series sweep.

With eight of the Pirates’ (9-9-1, 4-4) 10 runs coming with two outs or on sacrifice flies, Ottawa coach Levi Ericson said he was pleased to see his lineup deliver in clutch situations- an area the coaching staff has emphasized in recent weeks.

“It’s an area that we’ve struggled with at points this year. We’ve had runners in scoring position - runner on third, less than two outs - and we just haven’t executed those situations well enough,” Ericson said. “Even in the first, we found ourselves in that same situation with less than two outs and didn’t capitalize right away.”

“But tonight, we found a way with two outs. We hit the ball hard and put pressure on them.”

With 14 hits total, seven coming from the 7-9 spots in the lineup, Ericson also pointed to quality at-bats throughout the order as a key reason for the team’s two-out success.

“The bottom of the order has been a struggle for us sometimes this year, but today they really stepped up,” he said. “When those guys can get on and turn it over to a guy like Adam (Swanson) at the top, we’re going to score runs.”

Left fielder Jack Carroll delivered in the seven spot, going 3 for 3 with two RBIs, while sophomore shortstop Rory Moore went 2 for 3 in the nine hole, including a triple to the warning track in center field.

Swanson went a perfect 4 for 4 with an RBI, and also started the game at pitcher - throwing six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts on a short rest after earning the win out of the bullpen on Tuesday.

“He’s a guy where you know what you’re going to get when he steps on that mound. He’s going to go out there and challenge hitters, work quick and hit his spots,” Ericson said of his senior leader. “He threw on Tuesday, then came back tonight and kept dealing. That’s just who he is.”

Following a tough 1-4 week, Ericson said he wanted his team to approach each game day with a fresh mentality and believes it’s paying early dividends with the series sweep.

“After that first win this week, we talked about clearing everything and just coming ready to play every day,” he said. “I believe we’ve done that so far and now these guys should have some confidence and confidence obviously can go a long way in this game.”

With only three hits total, La Salle-Peru (8-13, 3-6) head coach Matt Glupczynski explained his team’s struggles at the dish while tipping his cap to Swanson.

“I don’t think we had a very good approach today. Swanson’s a really good pitcher and deserves a lot of credit, but we didn’t do the things at the plate that we’ve been doing all year,” Glupczynski said.

“And that kind of goes across the board - pitching and defense too. I didn’t feel like we really showed up today. We were just kind of there, and it shows on the scoreboard.”

The only Cavaliers to record a hit were designated hitter Braylin Bond, center fielder Nick Salazar and left fielder Adan Pantoja.

A pair of lefties were working today on the mound for the Cavs, with Tyler Spelich and Geno Argubright allowing four earned runs each.

Despite the loss, Glupczynski said he emphasized to his guys that there’s a lot of baseball left and wants them to focus on what’s ahead.

“You’ve got to have a short memory. This isn’t our whole season. Yeah, it’s our rival, and there was a lot at stake but our season’s not over,” he said. “We’re a good ball club and we’ve shown that but we just need to be more consistent. Hopefully we’ll see them again in the playoffs.”