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ORCHARD - The Hartington Post 4 Senior American Legion used one big inning and the right arm of pitcher Breiton Whitmire to take a 6-3 come-from-behind win over the Creighton Senior American Legion in the Class C Area 1 Baseball Tournament on July 26.
Creighton pitching kept Hartington from crossing the plate until the sixth inning, when Post 4 erupted for six big runs to erase a 3-0 deficit and put Hartington in position to move along in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Whitmire was on task on the mound, going 6.2 innings, scattering five hits, zero earned runs, a couple of walks and nine strikeouts.
Hunter Bensen came on and pitched the final out to earn a save.
Creighton picked up all three of its runs in the fourth inning on two hits, a hit batter and two Post 4 errors.
Hartington scored all six of its runs with two outs.
Maverick Heine started the Post 4 rally by working a walk followed by a Tate Fischer pass and a Breiton Whitmire walk.
Dylan Taylor provided the big hit, a single on a hard ground ball past the third baseman which sent Heine and Fischer home and left Whitmire on third base.
Bensen followed with a line drive single back up the middle which scored Whitmire and Taylor before a Koby Detlefsen single into center field kept the rally alive and runners at first and second.
Grady Haberer was plunked by the Creighton pitcher to load the bases then Brady Hochstein rifled a single into right field which scored Bensen and Detlefsen.
Hochstein stole second base but was left stranded when the next batter grounded out back to the pitcher.
Whitmire got the first two batters to line out the second base and shortstop, but had to exit the game due to the pitch count, but Bensen came on and struck out the final batter to record the save.
The win over Creighton sent Hartington on in the tournament without a blemish.
CRE0003000-351 HAR000006X-672 WP: Breiton Whitmire LP: NA S: Hunter Bensen.
2B: Koby Detlefsen.
Lineup AB R H RBI BB SO Breiton Whitmire 3 1 0 0 1 2 Dylan Taylor 4 1 2 2 0 0 Hunter Bensen 3 1 1 2 1 0 Koby Detlefsen 3 1 2 0 1 0 Grady Haberer 1 0 0 0 2 0 Brady Hochstein 4 0 2 2 0 1 Micah Cattau 3 0 0 0 1 2 Mav Heine 2 1 0 0 1 1 Tate Fischer 2 1 0 0 1 1
