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Game One

Fort Dodge 15, Marshalltown 6

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Bradley Lombard, Will Kenny (6) and Andy Smith; Jarred Carlson, Blake Bueghly (6) and Patrick Sharpshair, Jon Vance (7). WP - Lombard (2-2). LP - Carlson (1-1). 2B - FD: Eddy Diosdado 2, Tanner Beck; MHS: Jordan Judkins, Grant Carnahan. HR - FD: Diosdado 2 (10), Jerry Ellendson (1); MHS: Carlson (5), Cole Grewell (1). LOB - FD 7; MHS 9.

Game Two

Fort Dodge 14, Marshalltown 7

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Drew Arends, Ellendson (3) and Smith; Grewell, Sharpshair (3), Jacob Whaley (4), T.J. Flanagan (6) and Vance. WP - Ellendson (2-3). LP - Sharpshair (2-2). 2B - FD: Ricky Sandquist, Joe Hora, Tim Kayser; MHS: Grewell, Vance. 3B - FD: Hora. HR - FD: Diosdado (11); MHS: Whaley (1). LOB - FD 6; MHS 4.

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The race for the CIML Iowa Conference title has outrun Marshalltown, so much so that the Bobcats have turned their total attention to simply improving every time out.

MHS head coach Steve Hanson said Thursday's twinbill was two steps back.

Fort Dodge senior Eddy Diosdado slammed two of his three home runs in the first game of the doubleheader sweep for the Class 4A No. 8 Dodgers (18-9, 10-2), lifting the conference frontrunners to high-scoring wins of 15-6 and 14-7 at the MHS diamond.

Diosdado, who on Monday became Fort Dodge's all-time home run leader, added three to his career tally which now stands at 40. The first two homers came during the Dodgers' 15-6 victory in the opener, in which Diosdado finished 4-for-4 with two doubles, two homers - including a grand slam - four runs scored and eight RBIs.

"It just happened," Diosdado shrugged of his three-homer night. "It starts with batting practice early in the morning and that tells me if my swing's good enough. I got some pitches to hit and I jumped on them."

The eight RBIs puts Diosdado in the single-game recordbooks, tying him for 19th on the state chart.

It was the manner in which Diosdado accomplished the feat that bummed Coach Hanson.

"Eddy had a nice night, but we allowed him to have a nice night," Hanson said. "When we got the ball where we wanted it we had success against him, but when we missed he made us pay for it. Once he got started we didn't do much to get it stopped."

Pitch location was the focal point of Hanson's unrest, but Diosdado made the swings that did the damage when the ball wasn't where the Bobcats (15-8, 5-7) wanted it. His solo shot in game two hit made its mark as well - in the back of the scoreboard on the adjacent softball diamond.

Seven of the eight runs driven in by Diosdado in the opener came unearned to Marshalltown pitching. Jarred Carlson (1-1) suffered the loss, striking out eight in five innings. He allowed eight hits and nine runs - four earned - starting with Diosdado's solo homer three pitches into the game.

"Eddy's hitting around .400 but he's had a tighter focus at the plate," said Fort Dodge head coach Matt Elsbecker. "He loves to hit leadoff because he knows he's going to get to hit. That's his sixth homer leading off a game this year."

Only two of the six runs against MHS reliever Blake Bueghly were earned as six Bobcat errors did them in.

"I don't think we pitched the ball very well tonight, and when you're not pitching great your defense has got to be good, and tonight we had neither," said Hanson. "Offensively we did some things OK - 13 (runs) is a good number - but certainly not well enough to win."

Jerry Ellendson chipped in a two-run homer for the Dodgers in game one, while Tanner Beck had two hits, including a double, and two runs scored. Ellendson's two-run shot and Diosdado's grand slam came as a part of Fort Dodge's six-run fifth inning, and Diosdado's three-run double highlighted the team's six-run seventh.

Carlson hit his team-leading fifth home run of the season. He was one of three Bobcats to finish with two hits. Jordan Judkins was 2-for-4 with a double and T.J. Flanagan added two singles.

Pinch-hitter Cole Grewell hit a two-run home run - his first career homer - in Marshalltown's four-run sixth, which brought the Bobcats back to within 9-6 before Fort Dodge's second six-run inning sealed the victory.

Brad Lombard (2-2) worked five innings for the win, striking out five and walking one.

Game two got out to a high-scoring start, with both teams tallying three runs in the first inning. Jacob Whaley's three-run homer - his first career round-tripper - knotted the score at 3-all in the bottom of the first.

Diosdado's solo homer off Grewell in the second made it 3-2 Dodgers, and two unearned runs in the third inning put Fort Dodge ahead 5-2.

Marshalltown answered with a four-run third as Grewell lined an RBI double and Allen Mann added an infield single to score Whaley and chase Fort Dodge starter Drew Arends from the mound. Ellendson surrendered a two-out, two-run double to Jon Vance, but that was the last hit the left-hander allowed.

The Dodgers took the lead for good with seven runs in its next at-bat, and Ellendson (2-3) went 4 2/3 innings for the win in relief, walking one and striking out two. Both of his wins this season have come against Marshalltown.

"Winning two down here is huge, because Marshalltown is very well coached," said Elsbecker. "We always say that you can't out-coach Marshalltown so you've got to hope you have a little better athletes than them, and we might have that, but you've still got to play every night though.

"We took all four games from those guys and that's big as we start the second half of the conference schedule."

Joe Hora led the Dodgers' 11-hit attack in game two with a 4-for-5 plate performance that included a double, triple, three runs scored and four RBIs. Ricky Sandquist and Beck had two hits apiece.

Reliever Patrick Sharpshair (2-2), the second of four Marshalltown pitchers, took the loss.

The Bobcats have today off to prepare for Saturday's Brent Prange Invitational in Ankeny. At 12:15 p.m. Marshalltown faces Class 3A No. 8 Norwalk, and Southeast Polk is on the Bobcats' plate at 2:30 p.m.

"We're not really concerned about the conference race truthfully, we're trying to improve every time out and I thought we took a couple steps back tonight," Hanson said. "This weekend we play Norwalk and Southeast Polk, and Norwalk is a highly regarded team and it becomes a special team when they have Matt Dermody pitching. He might be the best pitcher in the state, aside from maybe (Dean) McArdle from Sioux City North, so we'll have to amp up our competition level."

Dermody, a 6-foot-5 left-hander, was selected in the 26th round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.