JEWELL – By scoring three runs in the last half of the sixth inning, the South Hamilton baseball team assured itself of one more frame Wednesday evening at the Mike Penning Athletic Complex.

But with the way that Gilbert was swinging the bats, the Tigers salivated at the chance to add to their lead.

They did, too.

Ahead 10-0 after 51?2 innings, Gilbert squandered the opportunity to end the Heart of Iowa Conference?contest an inning early, but unloaded for five more runs in the seventh in a 15-3 shelling of South Hamilton.

The Tigers (6-2, 5-0 HOIC) stayed unbeaten in league play by waylaying 18 hits off Hawks’ right-handed pitcher Caleb Olson, who threw 120 pitches in the complete-game loss.

“They are a good hitting team and I think they really thrive on hitting the fastball,” South Hamilton head coach Kyle Galetich said of the Tigers. “Our goal was to hope they hit it to some people. They did at times and we made the plays, but there were other times when we didn’t make the plays.”

South Hamilton (1-3, 1-3 HOIC) made just two errors, but Galetich pointed to numerous mental miscues that allowed Gilbert to keep innings alive.

“Those are things we’re going to work on and get better at we’ve got to find a way to have shorter innings,” he said.

Nick Day and Jared Gescheidler each laced four hits in the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the Tigers’ order. Day ripped a double and bases-clearing three-run triple that crashed into the left-field fence in the seventh. Gescheidler also doubled and drove in one run.

With no score in the third, Evan Johnson put Gilbert ahead to stay with a two-run blast to straight away center field.

Olson was on the hook for 14 earned runs. He walked four, hit three and stuck out two.

South Hamilton collected eight hits off Tigers’ ace hurler Wes Greder, including a lead-off double by Olson in the first. But he eventually got caught in a rundown between third and home to eliminate an early scoring threat.

Hunter Griffin went 2-for-3 with a double in the clean-up spot for the Hawks. Trey Woodall was 2-for-4 with a RBI, while Colton Griffin, Dugan Swenson and Blake Barquist all added singles.

Galetich said it was no surprise his team fought to stay alive in the sixth inning, but he’d like to see that same determination at the plate earlier in games.

“The guys have played hard all year and I’m proud of the effort they’re giving,” he said. “The problem is we get down eight or nine runs and that’s when we start getting runs. We need to change that.”

Greder fanned eight in six innings of work before handing the ball over to Barrett Schonefeld in the seventh.