Hartington Slides Past Vermillion, 11-9
HARTINGTON - Two and a half hours, 20 runs, seven innings, a fan warned by the umpire, and a Hartington player was ejected in an eventful 11-9 Hartington Seniors win over Vermillion on Monday night. The American Legion team played some of it’s best baseball of the summer on the way to win the first game the team has played in seven days.
Turner Korth started on the mound for Hartington, pitching a strong three innings that included seven strikeouts, including four in the second inning. Korth earned his first strikeout of that inning on a dropped third strike where the Vermillion batter reached first safely after swinging at a pitch that went past the catcher. Korth would allow six total runs and would have a no defensively at right field.
Whitmire closed the fourth inning out for Korth, but Vermillion took a 6-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Hartington bats were quick to take away that lead, scoring five runs to tie the game at six runs apiece. Three of those runs came off a three run triple by Jacob Kaiser.
“Coach Whitmire told me to look for the first pitch because it would be right in there,” said Kaiser. “So I was looking for it and it was right in there like he said, so I hit it.”
Kaiser would later come around to score, his first of three runs, and the score would be tied 6-6.
“We know this team,” said coach Don Whitmire. “They are young, resilient and they will give you everything they’ve got. I don’t ever question the effort out of any of them. there we found a way to put guys on, Jake found a good pitch to hit, and he didn’t miss it.”
Hartington would then put on four runs to take back the lead and add some insurance in the fifth run. Kaiser started it off with a single and two stolen bases, Dain Whitmire would reach on an error, and Korth would drive in Kaiser, move to second on a fielding error that would score Whitmire. Korth and Nolan Klug would both score on passed balls to give Hartington a 10-6 lead before ending the inning.
Sam Feilmeier would be ejected after he said some colorful words on the way back to the dugout after a strikeout on a called third strike. Feilmeier had started the day at third base and made a leaping catch on a line drive to third in the first inning that allowed him to double up the runner at first to end the inning. Kaiser said Feilmeier had motivated the team with his start in the third, and that they wanted to finish the game strong after his ejection.
“I dedicated the game to 6-0, my man, Sam Feilmeier,” said Kaiser. “He played a good game then he got thrown out.”
Vermillion’s scores came in three’s and in the sixth inning three more runs came across the plate. Hartington was able to hold on to the lead this time though, and even added an insurance run in the sixth, to finish the game with an 11-9 victory. Whitmire would walk away with the win on the mound, with Seth Wiebelhaus earning the save.
Hartington threw four pitchers on Monday, in order to keep arms at low pitch counts to be available later in the week. The Seniors played at Stanton on Tuesday, hosted Tabor on Wednesday, and hosted Atkinson on Thursday.
“This team has been around in every game, and tonight is a big win over a good quality opponent,” said Don Whitmire. “Hopefully the kids can feel it again and get back into baseball where they are winning those close ones. We had some pitchers up there that hadn’t thrown that much this year so it was nice to get them a couple of innings there.”
Whitmire said he was proud of the boys maintaining the lead, mentioning the Pender game that the boys lost on the previous Monday after allowing a late seven runs to give up the lead and lose the game. This was the first game that the senior boys had played since losing to Pender.
Heading into Stanton on Tuesday, the Senior boys were 2-2 on the season. The Hartington Junior and Seniors host Tabor on Wednesday, with Juniors starting at 5:45 p.m. and Seniors starting at 8 p.m. The Seniors will host Atkinson on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Vermillion 0 0 3 3 0 3 0 9 7 2
Hartington 1 0 5 0 4 1 x 11 8 2
Batting
Hartington - Brady Steffen, 1-2, 2 R, 2 BB; Sam Feilmeier, 0-3, 1 R, 2 K; Seth Wiebelhaus, 2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI; Riley Arens, 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI; Jacob Kaiser, 2-3, 3 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K; Dain Whitmire, 1-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K; Turner Korth, 1-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB; Nolan Klug, 0-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K; Austin Arens, 0-2; Mason Schaefer, 0-0, 1 BB.
Pitching
Turner Korth, 3.0 IP, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 H, 7 K, 4 BB; W - Dain Whitmire, 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 K; Riley Arens, 1.0 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 H, 1 K, 2 BB; SV - Seth Wiebelhaus, 1.0 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 K.