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HARTINGTON - After seemingly cruising along with five straight wins over the previous week, the Hartington Post 4 Senior American Legion baseball team lost a couple of games including the opening round of the Ralph Bishop League Tournament.
Crofton shocked Post 4 with a late come-frombehind 14-13 win over Hartington, after the Post 4 Seniors were seemingly cruising in that contest with a 10-2 lead on June 25 here in Hartington. The loss meant an early exit from the tourney for the local team.
Hartington had defeated Crofton in the two previous meetings, 7-3 on June 2 and 11-3 back on May 31.
Earlier in the week, Post 4 was defeated by Pender 5-3 on June 21.
Crofton scored first in the league tournament game with a single run in the first two innings.
Hartington exploded in the bottom of the third with 10 runs on six hits, a hit by pitch, an error and a dropped third strike.
Dylan Taylor provided the big hit in the inning, driving in two run on a triple to right field with two outs.
Consecutive singles earlier in the frame by Tyan Baller, Koby Detlefsen and Taylor, along with singles by Carson Arens and Dan Puppe produced five of the runs and gave Hartington a 10-2 lead.
Crofton nibbled away at the lead with a run in the top of the fourth, two runs in the fifth, three in the sixth and a six-run dagger in the top of the seventh.
Baller drove in Jaxson Bernecker in the sixth to help Post 4 cling to an 11-8 lead, but the six-run answer by Crofton put the Hartington Seniors in 14-11 deficit heading into the final at bat.
After a strikeout to open the Hartington half of the seventh, Breiton Whitmire drew a walk from Crofton pitcher, Carson Wieseler.
Wieseler then plunked Taylor to put runners on first and second with one out.
Bernecker rifled a line drive back up the middle to score, Whitmire and leaving Taylor on third.
Detlefsen hit a fly ball to center which was caught for the second out but was deep enough to score Taylor and get Post 4 to within a single run.
The next Hartington batter grounded out to third base and 14-13 final was set leaving the Post 4 Seniors at 10-9 on the season heading into Area action next month.
Against Pender Post 55, the visitors scored first on a couple of singles and a walk before Post 4 answered with a couple of runs in the home half of the frame.
After a couple of outs and a walk, Detlefsen smacked a double to center field which scored Baller who had the walk earlier in the inning.
Jalen Lammers worked a walk then Carson Arens doubled up the middle to score Detlefsen and leave runners on second and third.
A strikeout ended the threat and the inning and stranded two runners.
Post 55 took the lead back in the third for good with a couple of runs and added a single runs in the sixth and seventh to get to five.
Hartington added a run in the sixth when Braeden Reifenrath scored on a passed ball after drawing a walk and circling the bases, but could get no closer.
Post 4 is scheduled to host the Area 1 Tournament on July 21-26.
Joining Post 4 in the tournament will be Creighton-Bloomfield-Plainview, Crofton, Ponca, Stanton and Wisner-Pilger.
C 110 123 6 - 14 14 2 H (10-9) 0010 001 2 - 13 11 4 WP: Carson Wiesler LP: Weston Heine. 2B: Wieseler, B. Foxhoven, Knapp, Z. Foxhoven (C). 3B: Dylan Taylor (H). P 102 001 1 - 5 13 0 H 200 001 0 - 3 3 1 WP: Beckman LP: Lukas Wortmann. 2B: Rabbass (P); Koby Detlefsen, Carson Arens (H). 3B: Paulson (P).
