American Legion season ends for local players
PENDER — LCC athletes that wanted to take part in baseball this season played for the Hartington Pos 4 Senior Baseball Team.
The Post 4 team bowed out of the Area 2 Tournament here at Dave Nitschke Memorial Field Monday, July 25.
After riding the No. 5-seed through the tournament to one of two undefeated teams after the first couple of rounds, Post 4 lost back-to-back games to the top two seeds in the tournament to end its season.
The final blow was a 15-8 loss to Tekamah-Herman.
Although the loss was by a touchdown, Post 4 took their counterparts to the limit and never gave up after showing signs of getting defeated by the 8-run rule as early as the fifth inning.
“We definitely kept battling the entire game,” Hartington coach Ryan Heimes said. “We could have folded way earlier but we kept trying to stay in the game.”
Neither team scored in the opening inning but Hartington put up three runs in the top half of the second.
Carter Arens grabbed a walk and eventually scored on a wild pitch to open scoring in the contest.
Jalen Lammers got aboard with a single and moved around the bases on a sacrifice bunt by Keaton Steffen and a hard ground ball to first base by Daniel Puppe which was ruled an error but scored Lammers.
Puppe made his way around the base paths and would score on a single by Brett Kleinschmit to the left side of the infield.
When the dust settled, Hartington was up 3-0 heading into the bottom of the second frame.
Tekamah-Herman would answer with three runs in the bottom of the inning then plated nine big runs in the third to go up 12-3 heading into the fourth.
T-H added another score in the bottom of the fourth which required Post 4 to go into survival mode to extend the game.
Hartington responded with four runs in the fifth to narrow the gap.
Kleinschmit got on base with a walk and would score eventually on a triple from Jaxson Bernecker.
Bernecker scored on a wild pitch then Carter Arens drew a walk.
Lammers earned a base on balls then Steffen slapped a ball to second base which was bobbled and scored Carter Arens and Lammers.
Lammers subsequently was picked off first, one of three runners expired on the base paths on the night, to end the threat.
“Their pitchers all had great moves to pick us off,” Heimes said. “We got a little careless and spoiled some good chances for even better innings than we had.”
Tekamah-Herman’s starting pitcher, Jed Hoover picked off two of the Hartington base runners and allowed only three hits on the night before retiring in the sixth inning due to his pitch count.
Post 4 held T-H scoreless in the bottom of the fifth then added a run in the top of the next frame by Puppe to make it 13-8.
The Tigers added a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the final score before Post 4 went down in order in their half of the seventh.
Heimes was pleased with the progress the team made throughout the season.
“We told them it wasn’t going to turn around with one play or one swing of the bat,” he said. “It was going to take all of us to make it work - and that’s what we did.”
H 0 3 0 0 4 1 0 - 8 5 4
TH 0 3 9 1 0 2 X - 15 18 3
WP: Jed Hoover LP: Weston Heine.
2B: Spencer Pagels (2), Dylan Chatt, Garrett Noel (T-H). 3B: Jaxson Bernecker (H); Dawson Schram (T-H)
The Hartington Post 4 Senior Legion Baseball team is making some noise in the Class C Area 2 American Legion Tournament in Pender over the past week at Dave Nitschke Memorial Field .
Post 4 advanced through the first two rounds of the six-team tournament with an 8-0 win over Wisner-Pilger-Howells-Dodge in the opener and a 13-9 win over Ponca in round two.
Hartington ran into the top seed, Pender in the third round and fell 10-5 after trailing 8-0 after just two innings.
Pender Post 55 jumped on Hartington starting pitcher Lukas Wortmann for eight runs in the first two frames before Wortmann settled in and allowed just a single run the rest of the way before exiting after five innings.
Post 4 did manage four runs in the fourth inning to get back in the game but single runs by Pender in the fifth and sixth sealed the win and sent Hartington to an elimination game with Tekamah-Herman for the right to get back to Pender in the finals.
In the Hartington half of the fourth, Dylan Taylor opened the frame with a single on a line drive to right field.
Keaton Steffen drew a walk with Taylor standing on third base after a wild pitch.
Daniel Puppe stepped to the plate and smacked a double to left field and chased Taylor and Steffen home.
After a pitching change for Pender Brett Kleinschmit was promptly plunked by the new pitcher to put runners on first and second.
Puppe stole third and after a Hartington pop out, Jaxson Bernecker rifled a hot shot between the shortstop and third baseman to score Puppe and leave Kleinschmit on third.
Carter Arens hit a hard grounder in the hole to shortstop for a base hit which allowed Kleinschmit to score.
A strikeout ended the inning for Post 4, but left Hartington back in the game 8-5.
The lead grew in the next couple of innings and the Hartington bats couldn’t produce another run the rest of the way and fell by the 10-5 final.
In the second round against Ponca, Hartington won a wild back-and-forth contest in extra innings.
In fact, Post 4 scored six runs in the top of the ninth to break open a 7-7 tie to remain unbeaten in the tournament.
Carter Arens opened the ninth going to first base after being hit by a pitch.
Steffen followed with a walk before Taylor singled to center field scoring Arens.
Puppe drew another walk to load the bases and Kleinschmit hit a line drive to center, sending Steffen home after tagging up.
Taylor eventually stole home leaving Puppe on third before Carson Arens singled to center field to score his teammate.
After a fly ball out, Bernecker drew a walk, Weston Heine had the hit of the night with a bases-clearing triple on a line drive to center scoring Arens and Bernecker before being thrown out at the plate trying to stretch the triple into an in-the-park home run.
Bernecker took the mound in the opener against Wisner-Pilger/ Howells-Dodge and went the distance scattering six hits over the seveninning contest and striking out seven WPHD batters on his way to a shutout for the 8-0 win.
Meanwhile, the Post 4 offense pounded out 16 hits and scored all the runs Bernecker would need in the first inning.
Kleinschmit opened the game with an infield single then stole second base then raced top third, setting up Carson Arens for an RBI.
Arens answered with doubled to center field and eventually scored on a single by Bernecker.
Hartington would add three runs in the third, a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to walk away with the 8-0 win and set themselves up for a run in the tournament.
Hartington Post 4 5, Pender Post 55 10
H 001 400 0 - 5 7 0
P 440 011 X - 10 15 0
WP: Nathan Breitbarth LP: Lukas Wortmann.
2B: Daniel Puppe, Carter Arens (H); Caleb Trimble, Brennan Ferguson.
Hartington Post 4 13 Ponca 9
H 101 400 106 - 13 13 5
P 112 200 102 - 9 12 3
WP: Dylan Taylor LP: Matthew Logue.
2B: Taylor (H); Nolan Janssen, Grant Dorcey, Zach Ferneau (P). 3B: Jaxson Bernecker, Weston Heine (H).
