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PIERCE — The Hartington Heat 14 and under softball team traveled to Pierce June 6-8 where they opened the tournament with a 4-0 win over Creighton on June 6.
Unfortunately, the Heat couldn’t carry the momentum on in the district and dropped their next two games, 9-1 to Crofton and 4-2 to Summerland to be eliminated from the tournament but still managed to qualify for the Class D State Tournament July 11-13 in Hastings.
“We’re happy to get to qualify for Class D,” said Heat coach, Brice Grutsch. “Now we just need to get to playing better so we are at our best when we go down there to play.”
Earlier in the week, Hartington hosted a triangular with Yankton Fury Diamonds and Plainview which saw the team defeat the Yankton Fury 5-3 but drop the game to Plainview, 8-6.
Summerland bounced the Heat from the district with a 3-run final at-bat after Hartington had just taken the lead in the bottom of the previous inning.
Summerland scored in the top of the second but the Heat responded in the bottom of the frame to even the score at 1-1.
Brooklyn Peters walked to open the Hartington second and was chased home by a single by Myah Arnold after an out.
Kiersten Hans opened the bottom of the fifth with a single then stole second and advanced to third on an Arnold ground out.
After a Heat strikeout, Hans would score on a passed ball to give Hartington the 2-1 lead.
A couple of singles and a couple of walks coupled with a dropped third strike and Summerland was in the lead 4-2.
Jocelyn Reyes singled on a line drive up the middle for the Heat in the bottom of the inning with two outs, but a ground out ended the game as time expired.
“I really thought we swung the bats better in this game we just didn’t find a gap very often,” said Grutsch. “Overall, I was happy. We know we have to get better offensively and I think we are headed that direction.”
Crofton had sent Hartington into the elimination game with the 9-1 win earlier in the day.
“They are a good team and we hung around until they got to the second time around in their batting order,” the coach said. “One big inning and our lack of hitting was the difference.”
Friday night, June 6, Hartington turned away Creighton, with the shutout.
The Heat scored three runs in the second and added one in the third to move on in the winner’s bracket.
The 3-run second almost exclusively happened with two outs.
Natalee Hart walked with one out then went to second base on a ground out.
Nora Lange singled past third which put runners at the corners.
Hadley Grutsch then singled which scored Hart then Lange and Grutsch scored on the same passed ball.
Kiersten Hans started the offense in the third with a walk.
She stole second and eventually made her way to third base where Vayda Lippert singled past the shortstop to get Hans across the plate.
“We had good pitching and good defense against Creighton,” said Grutsch. “Hitting was, and still is a work in progress, but we got enough offense to win.”
In the triangular in Hartington, Plainvew defeated the Heat by the 8-6 final score.
Plainview scored seven runs in the first two innings before Hartington came storming all the way back with four runs in the fourth before running out of gas.
Earlier in the night, Hadley Grutsch paced the Heat offensive attack to turn away the Yankton Fury Diamonds 5-3 for the split in the two games.
Grutsch was 3-for-3 in the game, scored once and drove in a couple of teammates.
Hans went the distance in the circle, hurling four innings, scattering eight hits, gave up three runs while striking out five.
Hartington was set to take on Randolph June 10 then travel to Randolph June 12.
Summerland defeats Hartington Heat 14U 4-2. SUM010003X-430 HAR010010X-233 WP: UK LP: Kiersten Hans. 1B: Jocelyn Reyes, Kiersten Hans, Myah Arnold (H). Crofton Warriors defeat Hartington Heat 14U 9-1. HAR1000XXX-161 CRO3051XXX-971 WP: UK LP: Kiersten Hans. 1B: Hadley Grutsch, Jocelyn Reyes, Brooklyn Peters, Natlee Hart (H). 2B: Jocelyn Reyes (H). 3B: Ella Kelly (H). Hartington Heat 14U defeated Creighton 4-0. CRE00000XX-020 HAR0310XXX-440 WP: Kiersten Hans LP: UK. 1B: Hadley Grutsch (2), Nora Lange, Vayda Lippert (H). Plainview defeated Hartington Heat 14U 8-6. PLV3401XXX-8100 HAR1104XXX-640 WP:UK LP: Ella Kelly. 1B: Brooklyn Peters (2), Vayda Lippert (H). 2B: Nora Lange. Hartington Heat 14U def. Yankton Fury Diamonds 5-3. YAN1011XXX-380 HAR4100XXX-551 WP: Kiersten Hans LP: UK. 1B: Hadley Grutsch (3), Kiersten Hans, Nora Lange; E. Bruening, A. Valnes, J. Kindle, M. Thygeson, S. Wotrmann, T. Hofer (Y). 2B: E. Bruening (Y). 3B: B. Ramos (Y).
