Hartington Seniors pick up a pair of wins
HARTINGTON — The Hartington Senior American Legion baseball team finished a busy week with a couple of wins to even its showing for the seven-day period with a 2-2 record after dropping the first two contests.
The week was scheduled to be even busier, as the Hartington tournament was moved, washed out after getting in a couple of games on June 9.
The Post 4 Seniors ended the week with a win over Sioux City, Iowa, 7-4, in a regular-season match-up in Hartington on June 12, and won what turned out to be the final game of the Hartington tournament — 1-0 over Salem/ Montrose/Canova (SMC) out of South Dakota in a game called after five innings due to pouring rain.
Earlier in the evening, Hartington dropped the opener of the tournament to Harrisburg, S.D., 9-0 and lost another regular-season game to Wayne, 8-4, on June 7 at Hank Overin Field in Wayne.
Against Sioux City, Hartington exploded for five runs in the fifth inning to come from behind after trailing 4-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.
Brayden Reifenrath opened the Post 4 half of the fifth with a walk, but was caught stealing on the first pitch to Breiton Whitmire.
Whitmire singled past the shortstop later in the at-bat and then moved to second when Dylan Taylor was hit by a pitch.
Whitmire stole third and Taylor stole second before Jaxson Bernecker rapped a double to rightcenter field to chase home a pair of runs to even the score at 4-4.
Koby Detlefsen doubled up the middle to score Bernecker and give Hartington its first lead of the contest.
Tyan Baller moved Detlefsen to third with a ground ball and then Detlefsen scored on a wild pitch with two outs to make it 6-4.
Dan Puppe walked in the wildpitch at-bat and then stole second. Jalen Lammers sent Puppe home with a single past the third baseman.
A strike-out ended the inning, but not before Post 4 took the lead for good.
Taylor came on in relief of Bernecker in the top of the sixth inning and kept Sioux City from crossing the plate to get the save; Bernecker earned the win.
In the final game of the tournament, Lukas Wortmann took the hill and pitched a sparkling game, allowing only three hits in the fiveinning contest while striking out three and recording 15 outs total for the 1-0 win over SMC.
Check ou the entire story with our E Edition