Hartington wins thriller to advance to title game

HARTINGTON — Hartington dug itself out of a huge hole Monday night to earn a come-from-behind win over top-seeded Creighton and advance to Tuesday’s Area 1 District title game.

Hartington’s 10-9 victory kept the local team undefeated during the five-day tournament at Felber Park.

Hartington, 14-11, will now take on Ponca for the Area 1 title and a trip to next week’s Class C State Tournament in Syracuse.

Hartington is undefeated and in the driver’s seat to win the title. Ponca suffered an openinggame setback to Crofton, so they must earn back-to-back wins over Hartington in order to claim the title.

Creighton and Hartington were knotted at 9-9 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Brady Steffen turned on an 0-2 pitch and drove it past the defense into right field to score Riley Arens with his walk-off single.

The hit ended a furious comeback for Hartington.

Creighton got on the board in the first frame when Bryce Zimmerer walked, then stole his way all the way around the basepaths before finally stealing home to score. In the bottom of the first, Brady Steffen drew a walk to start the game for Hartington. He then stole second and moved to third on a Seth Wiebelhaus single before coming home on Turner Korth’s RBI single to tie the game at 1-1. A wild pitch then scored Wiebelhaus for the goahead run.

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