Hartington Pony team plays for Tourney title

NELIGH — The Hartington Ponies found a way to live up to their No. 1 seed at the Quad County Tournament in Neligh.

Hartington earned three wins to advance to Tuesday’s championship game.

In their first tourney game last week, it took awhile for the Ponies to wake up after falling behind 6-0 to the hosts before opening things up with a 16-7 win on Thursday.

Breiton Whitmire had three hits and two RBI, while Cole Bensen had two hits and three RBI and Brady Hochstein had two hits and two RBI.

Cole Rosener and Ayden Rosener both drove in two runs apiece.

They followed that win with a 3-1 victory over Creighton and a 16-4 rout of O’Neill to advance closer to a tournament title.

In the win over Creighton, Hartington chipped away with a run each in the third, fourth and fifth innings, as Whitmire and Cole Rosener combined to allow three hits and the latter striking out 11 opposing batters.

Bensen and Hochstein both drove in a run.

While beating O’Neill behind 10 hits, the Hartington squad (18-3) got homers from Bensen and Cole Rosener and four RBI from Jared Rutar – off of three hits – and three from Bensen.

The Ponies scored nine runs in the third inning, while Hochstein earned the win from the bump as he threw the first three innings. The righthander allowed five hits and four runs while striking out two and walking one. Rosener threw one inning in relief out of the bullpen.

Jared Rutar would not be denied at the plate when runners were on base Sunday, driving in four on three hits to lead Hartington Ponies past O’Neill.

Hartington Ponies big bats were led by Cole Rosener, Breiton Whitmire, Cole Bensen, Kody Sudbeck and Rutar, all driving in runs in the frame.

Coach Don Whitmire said in order to prepare for the tournament, he allowed the team to relax prior to its opening.

“Well, the boys were given time off through the 4th to be with families then the rain came,” he said. “We were scheduled to have a light practice, unfortunately we had to cancel due to rain. That said we had quite a lengthy break, however, I know there were kids hitting on their own, so we would be in good shape.

“The boys worked hard to win the regular season, as mentioned previously, we are playing our best team baseball right now and we have the luxury of a lot of depth, which contributed to where we are sitting in the league.”

Coach Whitmire spoke glowingly about the potential of this team a year ago during a fragmented COVID-19 season and he has been proven correct.

“The majority of this team returned from last year,” he said. “That team really played well in the tournament, but we came up short as a runner up. The kids have used this as motivation for this year, which inspired my confidence in them. All the kids get along really well, and it has not mattered who was in, the kids displayed confidence in each other, which also eased some of my coaching concerns.”

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