Power surge: Iowa City Liberty belts 4 home runs in baseball sweep over Cedar Rapids Jefferson

CEDAR RAPIDS - Iowa City Liberty hadn’t hit a home run in its first 17 games of the season.

The Lightning generated a power surge that resulted in four long balls in back-to-back contests.

Jayden Khamphilanouvong belted his first two varsity home runs and more than doubled his hit total for the season, contributing to the offensive outburst in Liberty’s 12-6 and 6-3 Mississippi Valley Conference baseball doubleheader sweep of Cedar Rapids Jefferson on Friday night at Lower Kingston.

“We definitely clicked tonight, for sure,” Khamphilanouvong said. “There is a lot of momentum, moving forward. Hopefully, this carries on to the next.”

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The Lightning junior batted 5-for-8 with solo home runs in each game and closed with an RBI double in the nightcap. The performance reversed sine struggles, including four hits and a .167 batting average before the twinbill.

“I haven’t been swinging it well lately, but tonight I felt great,” said Khamphilanouvong, who is now hitting .281 with six RBIs. “I woke up. I went to the cages early. I got some really good rest this week.”

Khamphilanouvong entered Friday with just two extra-base hits - one double and a triple - provided pop that he didn’t know he had.

“No, this is a first,” Khamphilanouvong said. “It was good. My body was moving well.”

Concentration hasn’t been on building power, despite efforts in strength training. It developed naturally to having a better approach at the plate.

“I’ve been focusing on trying to get line drives up the middle, ground balls to the right side and stay opposite field,” Khamphilanouvong said. “I don’t know what just happened. It just felt great swinging the bat.”

Khamphilanouvong led off the seventh of Game 1 with his first home run, sparking a five-run inning and padding Liberty’s advantage. He also led off the fourth of Game 2 with another home run.

A small breeze help the ball carry in the opener, but that wasn’t the case in the next game.

“First one, I didn’t know if it was going to go,” Khamphilanouvong said. “I kind of hit the handle of the bat a little bit, but the wind was blowing out today. “The second I got all of it. It felt really nice.”

In the first game, Luke Ramsey put Liberty on the board in the third with a two-run home run. Liam Bender added a two-run home run in four-run sixth. Liberty erupted for nine runs in the last two innings.

“We did a better job with guys in scoring position,” Liberty Coach Uby Martinez said. “We’ve stranded a lot of guys lately. We said you have to stay with it. It’s going to come around and it has.”

Martinez said the Lightning struck out a lot last season. They have been tentative at the plate, trying to overcorrect the tendency to miss. Liberty hit well in a sweep of Dubuque Senior last Friday, smacked 28 hits against the J-Hawks with 19 in the opener and had six doubles overall.

“The last couple days we’ve been cutting them loose a little bit,” Martinez said. “We’ve talked about feeling free to swing away.”

Liberty scored three in the seventh to break a tie in the second game. Mason Gardner single and reached third on an Owen Norris double. An error scored both and Khamphilanouvong double to bring in the final run.

Norris also had an RBI double in the first. Gardner had five total hits to match the team high.

Liberty (10-9) has won four of its last six games and surpassed the .500 for the second time this season. The Lightning have battled a tough schedule that has included five ranked teams.

“Our schedule has been difficult all year,” Martinez said. “A lot of ranked teams and we play in a tough league every day. You have to bring your best stuff every day, otherwise you’re going to get trounced hard.

“I’m proud of our guys. They’re doing a really nice job.”