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CROFTON — After a disappointing 7-4 opening round loss to Crofton on July 8, Hartington fought its way back through the consolation bracket of the Area 1 Ameri can Legion Juniors baseball tournament.
Hartington defeated Creighton- Bloomfield-Plainview, 5-1 on July 9 and then Mother Nature temporarily took over the tournament on July 10.
A scheduled elimination game against Orchard/Tri-County, for the chance to play in the finals, was wiped out July 10 and rescheduled for July 11.
The winner of that game would get the chance to come back and play Crofton for the Area 1 title and a chance to play in this weekend’s Class C State Junior American Legion Tournament, which will be held in Imperial, July 15-19.
The winner of Post 4 versus Orchard/Tri-County would need to beat Crofton twice to advance to state.
Hartington took care of business in the first elimination game with Creighton-Bloomfield-Plainview, grabbing a lead with a run in the top of the first inning, adding a run in the second, two runs in the fifth and a needless insurance run in the fifth to post the 5-1 final.
C/B/P scored a run in the sixth, but after Dylan Taylor gave way to Jaymison Cattau in the middle of the fifth after a great performance on the mound, Cattau took it from there and held C/B/P from scoring in the seventh.
Taylor allowed a run on five hits while striking out eight, Cattau allowed no runs on one hit and struck out three, all in the final frame.
In the Hartington-half of the first, after a fly out, Brady Hochstein drew a walk before Breiton Whitmire stepped to the plate and drove the first pitch he saw to center field for a double, chasing Hoschstein to third.
Koby Detlefsen followed that with a single past the shortstop to score Hochstein and send Whitmire to third.
A strikeout and another fly out ended the threat, but Post 4 was on the board.
Sam Wiebelhaus drew a walk in the second inning, but was followed by a couple of outs. During those at bats pro ducing the outs, Wiebelhaus stole second and third bases to set the table for Taylor.
Taylor helped his own cause with a double to left field to score Wiebelhaus and give Hartington all the runs it needed to secure the game, 2-0.
Keyton Arens got on board with a single in the fifth for Post 4 and advanced to second on an errant pick off attempt. Taylor grounded out to first base, sending Arens to third on the play.
Three consecutive singles by Hochstein, Whitmire and Detlefsen produced two additional runs and pushed the Hartington lead to 4-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
Wiebelhaus would score again in the fifth on an RBIsingle by Taylor and the Hartington score was complete for the contest.
Detlefsen was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with a couple of RBI’s, Taylor was 2-for-4 with a couple of RBI’s and Whitmire was 2-for-3 with and joined Taylor with a double in the game.
In the first round against Crofton, Post 4 scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it interesting, but a four-run Crofton sixth did the damage as Hartington was bounced to the consolation bracket with the 7-4 loss.
Hartington had beaten Crofton twice during the regular season, 8-6 on June 24 in Hartington and 11-3 back on May 31.
Post 4 was held without a run until Maverick Heine walked in the fifth inning with one out.
After a fly ball to the pitcher made it two outs, a Whitmire single between shortstop and third base sent Heine all the way around the bases to make it 3-1 with Crofton in the lead.
After Crofton plated the four runs in the sixth, Braeden Reifenrath opened the seventh for Post 4 with a single up the middle.
Jared Rutar then drew a walk but was eventually out at second on a fielder’s choice which left Heine on first base and Reifenrath at third.
A strikeout made it two outs when Whitmire came to the plate and stroked a double to center field scoring Reifenrath and Heine.
Whitmire would score from there after stealing third base then advancing home on a passed ball.
A fly ball ended the game.
Post 4 (15-3) 110 210 0 - 5 11 0 CBP 000 001 0 - 1 5 1 WP: Dylan Taylor LP: B. Weber. 2B: Taylor, Breiton Whitmire (H). Post 4 000 010 3 - 4 5 0 Crof 021 004 0 - 7 12 1 WP: Z. Foxhoven LP: Koby Detlefsen.
2B: Breiton Whitmire (H); B. Foxhoven (2), Z. Foxhoven, Jack Drotzmann.
