Photo by Samantha Davis. Granite Fall's Bryce Sneller (left) is welcomed at home plate by his teammates after hitting a grand slam in the fourth inning against Sacred Heart Wednesday night. 

GRANITE FALLS — Bryce Sneller’s fourth-inning grand slam and shutout pitching performance with nine strikeouts helped the Granite Falls Kilowatts cruise past Sacred Heart 11-0 in mercy rule Wednesday evening in a Corn Belt League game.

“My at-bat before [the grand slam], I was thinking in my head like, ‘What if I hit a grand slam?'” Sneller said. “My grandpa came today, he’s in assisted living, so my dad brought him today, and I was like, ‘How cool would it be to give my grandpa a home-run ball?’ And sure enough, it happened. I was pretty excited to give him the ball.”

Sneller, who said tonight was his first-career grand slam, also had a stellar performance on the mound. He limited the Saints to three hits and no walks through his six innings pitched.

“I had faced them [Sacred Heart] before, and I kind of knew each one of their [batting] abilities,” Sneller said. “I tried to hit the spots where they couldn’t hit, and it worked out pretty well.”

Granite Falls took control of the game promptly with a pair of runs in each the first and second innings before Sneller’s big hit in the fourth, and continued to chip away after. Five different Kilowatts recorded two hits.

Granite Falls finished the night with 11 hits and two errors, to the Saints’ three hits and one error.

“We’ve been struggling to hit the ball. The last few games, we’ve left quite a few runners on base. One of the things we talked about before the game was that we need to clutch up, we got to hit, and we got to get some of these runners in,” Granite Falls manager Mike Richter said. “The guys came through, and that’s good. We were talking in the dugout here a little bit, and we finally got 10 hits.”

Sneller had a team-high five RBIs, while Ty Schulte had a pair in the first inning.

Sneller, Cody Dahlager, Bennett Knapper, Drew Almich and Nikson Knapper all finished with two hits apiece.

Leading up to Sneller’s grand slam in the fourth, Dahlager got on with a single fly ball to right field, while Hunter Wilkes and Bennett were both walked to load bases up.

Sneller stepped up to the plate and sent the ball past the right field fence, and was welcomed at home plate by his teammates to put the Kilowatts up 8-0.

Granite Falls brought in another two runs in the fifth inning to put its lead up with 10 unanswered runs. Almich scored off a Dahlager RBI single, and Nikson stole home from third base off a Sacred Heart throwing error on an attempt to tag-out Dahlager stealing second.

Schulte sparked Granite Falls’ offense in the first inning with a two-run RBI double to center field for the night’s first runs, scoring both Wilkes and Bennett from third and second base, respectively.

The Killowatts extended their early lead in the second inning with runs from Andrew Flatten and Dahlager, with RBI singles from Bennett and Sneller.

“It was fun. Everybody was hitting the ball, and it was a good time,” Sneller said.

Nikson accounted for Granite Falls’ final run of the night in the bottom of the sixth inning with a single line drive to right field from Colton Vien.

Nikson pitched the final inning to relieve Sneller in the top of the seventh.

Granite Falls catcher Nick Lindstrom had a successful throw down to Sneller at second base for a tag-out of a Saints’ runner attempt to steal, ending the game alongside Nikson’s two strikeouts.

“The hard part is some of these guys, as the team gets a little older, some of them are still playing college baseball. They come in ready to go … Some of the veterans that haven’t played quite as many games, they need to get some at-bats under their belt,” Richter said of the team’s early start to the season. “Tonight, we had two errors, which were both tough plays, but again, that’s baseball. I thought otherwise, we played really well.”

Granite Falls evens its season out at 3-3, and will look to keep the momentum going when it travels to take on the Marshall A’s (8-3) next Wednesday at Legion Field with a 7:30 p.m. first pitch.

“I feel like we are really coming together,” Sneller said. “It may have taken a few games, but I think we’re here now.”