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HARTINGTON - In what was a thrilling finish, the Hartington Ponies walked-off the Laurel Ponies 5-4 in a game played July 1 at home.
Hartington trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning leaving three outs to score two runs.
Back-to-back triples, first by Rylan Fischer then by Rex Lippert opened the frame in the right way and left the score tied as Lippert’s 3-bagger chased Fischer home.
The next batter popped out to left field leaving Lippert on third for the time being.
Maddox Haberer stepped to the plate and hit a sharp ground ball to the short stop which was enough to get Lippert home and the game ended with the 5-4 final.
The game was close from the beginning with Hartington scoring first in the bottom of the first frame, but Laurel answered in the top of the second with a run of its own.
Laurel took a 2-1 lead in the middle of the third stanza, but the Hartington Ponies took it right back in the bottom of the inning with runs from Hudson Whitmire and Grant Klug after both had singled to open the Hartington half of the frame.
Keaton Keiser made it three hits in a row to chase Klug home after Klug belted in Whitmire.
The teams traded outs until Laurel came to the plate in the sixth.
The first two Laurel Ponies got on board, one on an error and one with a single and eventually scored to take the lead and set up Fischer and Lippert’s heroics in the bottom of the inning.
The Hartington 14U Pony League will be back in action in the league tournament which is set to begin July 9.
Hartington 14U Pony League defeated Laurel 14U Pony League 5-4. LAU011002-422 HAR102002-573 WP: Hudson Whitmire LP: B. Urwiler. 1B: Grant Klug (2), Hudson Whitmire, Keaton Keiser, Oliver Hochstein (H); L. Erwin (2) (L). 3B: Rylan Fischer, Rex Lippert (H).
