Ron Deuter photo Kingsford senior Nolan Hendrickson slides in safe at home during the first game of a doubleheader against Gladstone Tuesday at Lodal Park. Hendrickson had two hits, three runs and three RBI combined in the Flivvers’ sweep.

KINGSFORD — With a big doubleheader sweep over Gladstone Tuesday at Gary Spigarelli Field, the Kingsford varsity baseball team is in the driver’s seat for league title.

The Flivvers topped the Braves 8-3 and 10-4, improving to 8-5 overall and 6-0 in Great Northern Conference play. With just a handful of conference games remaining before the regular season wraps up later this month, Kingsford controls its own destiny to what would be a second straight outright league championship.

Kingsford’s offense was held in check for five innings in the opener, before exploding for seven runs in the sixth to erase a 3-1 deficit. In the second game, which ended in the sixth due to darkness, the Flivvers’ offense helped overcome some miscues in the field that allowed Gladstone to hang around through the early innings.

“It was kind of ugly at times,” Flivvers head coach Joe Kriegl said. “Both teams made some mistakes. They just made a few more mistakes than we did. I’m tickled that we got two wins, especially against a team like that. They’re going to be a good team and improve yet this season and in the years to come. There are some good players on that team.”

Senior hurler Isaac Ketchum had the Braves in control early in game one. He allowed just four baserunners through the first four innings and didn’t yield a hit until back to back singles by senior Garrett Brown and junior Jack Kriegl in the fifth — which gave Kingsford its first run of the game.

Fatigue caught up to Ketchum in the sixth, however, and the Flivvers took advantage. A plunked batter, a well-executed bunt to third by junior Jacob Deuter and a single by senior Nic Novara helped the Flivvers load the bases with nobody out. Senior Nolan Hendrickson then drove in a run with a single up the middle.

That chased Ketchum from the game, but the Flivvers kept going with five straight hits. Senior Gavin Grondin singled to left to make it a 3-3 game. Brown then came through with a two-run single to put Kingsford ahead.

Kriegl brought in another with an infield single. Senior Andres Finley brought home two more with a hit, and senior Gavin Trevillian added one more RBI hit. By the time it was all said and done, the Flivvers had sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven times.

“That was a big inning for us,” Kriegl said. “We got a lot of hits, scored some runs and really put some pressure on them. That was huge.”

Finley and Brown shared the mound duties, allowing five hits while striking out seven and issuing three walks.

The Flivvers were the away team for the second game (a make-up from a rainout), and they jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning thanks to a RBI single by Trevillian. But Gladstone answered in their half as the bases were walked loaded and then a tapper on the infield was misplayed allowing a run to score.

Kingsford added three more runs in the third. A one-out shot up the middle of the infield by Hendrickson allowed runners to score from second and third. Hendrickson scored the third run when he bolted home from third on a pickoff attempt and slid in safe.

But Gladstone answered again in their half with three of their own to re-tie the game at 4-4. Junior Trevor Thorbahn made Kingsford pay for some more fielding mistakes with a big two-run single in the inning.

Kingsford regained the lead for good in the fourth. Trevillian drove in the go-ahead run with a line drive single to center. Deuter followed with RBI single to left, and Novara drove in a run as well.

Senior Joey Weber took over for starter Grondin on the mound in the bottom of the fourth and didn’t allow a baserunner the rest of the way. He fanned two in the fourth and set the Braves down in order in the fifth with three more strikeouts.

Kingsford added one more run in the fifth thanks an error by Gladstone, and two more in the sixth. Novara led off the sixth with a double to the fence in the right center gap and came home thanks to a single by Hendrickson, who totaled three RBI in the game.

With darkness settling in, Gladstone opted to call the game after the top of the sixth.

“It comes down to pitching,’ Kriegl said. “We run into trouble when we don’t throw strikes and walk batters. We also had a few errors that extended innings and put us in bad spots at times, but we were able to overcome it. We had some really key hits today from kids who we don’t normally see in those situations. That’s the nice thing. Hopefully that continues and we can keep doing what we need to do.”

The Flivvers play at Negaunee this afternoon. A game at home against North Dickinson was added to the schedule for Friday. Kingsford then heads to Escanaba on May 13 for a Great Northern Conference contest.