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ORCHARD - The Hartington Post 4 Senior American Legion baseball team used a decisive, 11-3 walk-off, run-rule win to advance to the finals of the C1 Area Tournament July 29, defeating Ponca Post 117.
Dylan Taylor drove in five runs, scoring three times and going 2-for-3 at the plate.
Micah Cattau went the distance on the hill, scattering seven hits over his six innings of work, allowing three runs, one walk and seven strikeouts.
Ponca scored first in the opening inning with a pair of runs, but Post 4 answered with one in the bottom of the frame then took the lead for good in the bottom of the second with three runs to take a 4-2 advantage.
Hartington would go on to score two runs in each of the next three innings to go up 10-3 before plating a run in the bottom of the six to get to the 8-run rule and finish the game by the 11-3 score.
In proper fashion, Taylor provided the final nail with an RBI error on a hard shot to third base in the bottom of the sixth after Breiton Whitmire had gotten on base with a double into right field.
Whitmire stole third then Taylor delivered a sharp ground ball past second base and the game was over, chasing Whitmire home.
In the three-run third inning, the Post 4 Seniors took advantage of a couple of errors and a couple of walks to come up with the three runs.
Cattau got on the board on an error and was replaced by courtesy runner, Hudson Whitmire.
Sam Wiebelhaus worked a walk and was replaced by courtesy runner, Tate Fischer.
After a Hartington strikeout, Breiton Whitmire came to the plate and Hudson and Fischer stole third and second respectively, setting up Taylor’s final blow.
Ponca then survived Monday’s elimination game earning a 12-7 win over the host team, the Tri-County Titans to return to take on Post 4 in Tuesday’s Area finals for a chance to go to the Class C State Tournament which will be hosted by Sutton Aug. 2-6.
Ponca would have to beat Hartington twice in the finals to move on. The winner of that final will take on the winner of the Area 3 tournament being held in Tecumseh at 10 a.m. Aug. 2 at the Class C state tourney.
PON200010X-376 HAR132221X-1180 WP: Micah Cattau LP: Zain Stark. 2B: Breiton Whitmire, Grady Haberer, Micah Cattau (H); Austin Dendinger, Bradley Lentz, Zain Stark (P). HR: A Dendinger (P). Lineup AB R H RBI BB SO Breiton Whitmire 3 2 1 0 2 2 Dylan Taylor 3 3 2 5 1 0 Hunter Bensen 4 0 0 1 0 0 Koby Detlefsen 4 1 1 1 0 0 Grady Haberer 3 0 3 1 1 0 Brady Hochstein 2 1 0 0 2 2 Micah Cattau 3 0 1 1 1 1 Sam Wiebelhaus 2 0 0 0 2 1 Mav Heine 3 1 0 1 1 1 TEAM 27 11 8 10 10 7
