HARTINGTON — Despite coming into Friday’s Class C Area 2 District Tournament as the second-seed, the Randolph American Legion Seniors had to battle in order to earn a one-run win over seventh-seeded Ponca Friday.

Both teams got their bats working in the first frame as Ponca put up two runs on two hits and Randolph came back in their half of the frame to score three runs on four hits.

Clint Lackas, who finished the game with a sizzling 3-3 effort, got the Redbirds started with a lead-off single. Chris Rohde then sliced an RBI double down the first base line and into right field to score Lackas. Not to be outdone, Michael Kint belted an RBI triple down the left field line to score Rohde. Kint then came in on a Chris Leiting single.

Randolph’s defense held Ponca scoreless in the second frame, while the offense produced one more run to take a 4-2 lead.

Adam Tunink reached base on a throwing error on Ponca’s third baseman. He then moved to second and came home on Austin Backer’s RBI single.

Ponca cut into the Randolph lead in the next frame when Josh Block scored thanks to two walks, a sacrifice bunt and a single.

Randolph chased Ponca starter Tyler Rasmussen from the mound in the third frame, roughing him up for four runs on three hits and an error to take an 8-3 lead after three.

T.J. Lackas singled to get Randolph’s offense started in the third frame. Danno Kyles then walked and Chris Leiting reached on an error to load the bases. Adam Tunink’s RBI single drove in Lackas and Jon Gubbels drew a walk to drive in Kyles. Clint Lackas then smacked a two RBI single past the defense for Randolph’s final two runs of the frame.

Ponca plated a pair of runner in the next two frames, but Randolph responded with a four-run fifth-inning to take control with a 12-5 lead.

Randolph picked up runs in the fifth from Clint Lackas, Chris Rohde, Michael Kint and Austin Backer.

Randolph changed pitchers in the sixth. Michael Kint took the mound, but was unable to record an out and he was quickly replaced by Austin Backer. Ponca managed to string together six runs in the frame on two hits and four walks to take a 13-12 lead.

The Ponca lead was short-lived, though, as the Big Red came back with two more runs in their half of the inning to claim the 14-13 lead.

Clint Lackas scored after reaching on a dropped ball by the Ponca left fielder and Adam Tunink scored after reaching base by being hit by a pitch.

Randolph’s win pits them against the winner of the Wakefield-Hartington game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Ponca         2  0  1  1  1  6  0-  13

Randolph   3  1  4  0  4  2  x- 14

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.