Juniors earn runner-up title

WAKEFIELD — The Hartington Post 4 Junior American Legion baseball team dropped the title game on July 1 in the Ralph Bishop League finals for its second loss of the entire summer in a well-played game fitting of a finals match-up at Eaton Field in Wakefield.

The final score of West Point 4, Hartington 3, would indicate a pitcher’s duel, but in reality, it was a case of simply a great baseball game against two equally matched opponents.

First of all, there was not an error committed in the entire game and the pitching was good, but it was really a battle of two quality teams — the kind of contest one would expect for a title match-up.

“Oh yes, we played well; I guess they (West Point) just made a couple more plays,” Hartington skipper Don Whitmire said. “We’ll be just fine; we just have to adjust and get better. You have to do that in a season no matter what your records says — I’ll stand behind our guys.”

Whitmire’s adversary, longtime West Point coach Bruce Schlecht, agreed.

“This could have gone either way; we made some plays they didn’t, we won,” Schlecht said. “We’ll all go to an area tournament and play some teams we will beat, but in the end, you will play a good team you need to perform at a higher level and beat or go home — it’s why I love this league; you’re going to play some quality competition and we just did. They might beat us nine out of 10 games, but we won — that’s baseball.”

Schlecht has been the coach for West Point teams for more than 40 years and he understands the fine line between winning and losing this time of year.

“It’s not complicated,” Schlecht said. “You catch a break, you get a hit — I’m telling you, we could have just as easily taken home the silver medal — that’s baseball. You’re not going to win them all ... Just win the last one.”

West Point jumped out to a 2-0 lead after single runs in the first and third innings.

Post 4 came alive at the plate in the top of the fourth to make it 2-1.

Breiton Whitmire, who started on the hill for Hartington, hit a single to right field before Brady Hochstein grabbed a walk.

Whitmire, who stole third during the Hochstein at-bat, waited patiently as Hochstein swiped second base.

Dylan Taylor stepped to the plate and grounded out to the pitcher, which didn’t allow any runners to advance.

Koby Detlefsen smacked a fly ball to right field, which was more than deep enough to get Whitmire home to make it 2-1.

After back-to-back scoreless innings, the Post 4 Juniors got it going again in the sixth.

Whitmire singled again, this time to left field, and then stole second.

He advanced to third, then tagged up and scored when Taylor laced a deep line drive to center field.

The run tied the score at 2-2 heading into the sixth.

In the bottom of the frame, West Point added two runs, but Hartington was not done.

Braeden Reifenrath singled to open the Post 4 half of the seventh and then, after a strikeout, Cole Rosener singled on a ground ball back up the middle, which sent Reifenrath to second.

Keyton Arens singled past third base, scoring Reifenrath to make it 4-3 and advancing Rosener to second.

After a pop out for two outs, Rosener was thrown out trying to reach third base on a steal.

“That’s a play West Point made; we wanted to stay aggressive,” Don Whitmire said. “We felt like it was what we needed to do — we’re trying to win the game. Just didn’t work — not anybody’s fault, just baseball.”

That ended the Hartington half of the seventh and the contest.

Earlier in the week, Post 4 had a happier time advancing to the Ralph Bishop League finals with a 5-4 win over the Wayne Post 43 Juniors, despite three errors on the night.

But it was the same thing as the finals — a team needed to remain focused to walk away with the win.

“It is that time of year,” Whitmire said. “If you don’t take care of your business, you’re going to be sitting at home.”

Reifenrath scored a couple of runs on a couple of hits to pace Post 4, Breiton Whitmire scored one, Jaymison Cattau scored one and Arens ran across the plate once.

Detlefsen went six innings, allowing only six hits and the four runs. Jared Rutar toed the rubber for the final frame and picked up the win.

“We need to clean up the errors and get better,” Don Whitmire said. “I believe we will.”

W 031 000 0 - 4 6 0 H 120 101 0 - 5 7 3 H 000 101 1 - 3 5 0 WP 101 002 - 4 6 0 WP: Isaac Guenther LP: Brady Hochstein.