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Local baseball teams are working out the kinks

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HARTINGTON — Hartington American Legion baseball has gotten under way as the COVID-19 pandemic was able to wipe out a big chunk of what would have been the normal season.

But Don Whitmire, who leads the organization has seen three young teams at the Senior, Junior and Pony levels all find ways to scrap and compete despite being the lesser experienced team in most cases.

“With this COVID season it’s made it a rough go for everything,” Whitmire said. “The season will be a lot shorter so there won’t be a lot of postseason. Typically, we have 30 games under our belt at this time of year.”

The Pony team consists of players  ages 13-14; the Juniors are 13-17 and the Seniors are 18 and 19 years old. Some players can play for two teams.

Whitmire said that about two more weeks of play remain in the shortened season with playoffs following.

The Hartington Seniors opened up the campaign at 2-1 heading into Tuesday’s game at Crofton.

This weekend, they travel to Creighton for a tournament that begins Friday against a yet to be determined opponent and field. 

Last week the Seniors held on for a 12-10 win against Yankton and then routed Osmond, 12-4.

Hartington needed only six hits to get the win in six innings as it was aided by thee Yankton errors and five walks.

Jaxon Bernecker had a team-high three RBI while Chase Lammers was the only player with two hits.

Hartington scored five runs in the first inning to take the early lead and held on from there.

Jacob Keiser pitched 1.1 innings to earn the win.

Hartington’s bat got hotter in the win over Osmond, finishing with 10 hits and four-run frames in the second and fourth innings.

They had to rally from a 3-2 deficit heading into their frame of the second inning and cruised from there.

Lammers had three hits with two RBI and four runs scored. Owen Heimes had four RBI with two hits and Bernecker added two hits.

Brady Steffen was the winning pitcher, going four innings while striking out seven Osmond batters.

“Creighton is always a good ballclub and had four games under their let already,” Whitmire said of the opening loss to the season. “My team is a resilient group. Brady is my quiet captain and he just finds a way to get on the sacks. Against Osmond we had a couple of errors behind him.”

The Seniors started 1-9 last summer and then finished 16-11 and found their way to the state tournament. That mojo has carried over.

“You can see a quiet confidence in them,” Whitmire said. “Defensively we make plays even if we have an error every once in a while. Also, when we get on the basepaths, these kids know how to steal bases and scratch runs.”

The Hartington Juniors are also 2-1 and on a two-game winning streak following Friday night’s 8-4 win at Plainview.

They also beat Osmond 12-4 to bounce back from a 14-0 defeat against Yankton that started the season.

A four-run third inning broke open the game and a five-run fifth frame closed the deal for Hartington who overcame three errors against Osmond.

Jaxon Bernecker had three RBI while Owen Dendinger added two RBI. Both boys had two hits.

Carson Arens pitched three innings, allowed no runs and struck out five to get the win.

Against Plainview, the Juniors took the lead for good in the third inning with two runs to go up 3-2. They finished with nine hits and just one error.

Dendinger had a team-high three hits and Brett Kleinschmit added two hits while four different players recorded an RBI.

Bernecker struck out seven over four innings to get the win from the mound.

“Against Osmond, we actually played a senior team and the boys played well,” Whitmire said. “They are a good, talented team. They are coming around and are very coachable. It will be a fun year.

“They love the game and when they are out there, they want to give it everything they got.”

A lot of juniors play up on the senior squad due to a short number of the latter group.

The Juniors were at Crofton Tuesday and head to O’Neill for a 5:45 p.m. contest on July 14.

 

The Hartington Ponies stood 1-4 after a Thursday night 12-5 defeat to visiting Elgin. That followed a 6-3 road loss at Crofton to wrap an 0-2 week.

The Ponies played Laurel Monday and return to action 7 p.m. Thursday at Creighton and 7 p.m. Monday at home against Atkinson.

Elgin’s nine-run fifth inning broke the game open as Hartington was led by five different batters who recorded a hit with Weston Heine getting the only RBI.

Crofton built an early 6-0 lead through three innings and that was enough to hold off the Ponies.

Six different Pony players got a hit while Logan Eickhoff had a team-best two RBI.

Breiton Whitmire struck out six in 2.2 innings of relief pitching.

“Half of the team is technically 12-year-olds and so they are mostly playing up as first-year Ponies,” Don Whitmire said. “They are a young, raw, talented team putting things together. In our first game, we had 14 walks so our pitching has been coming around and putting balls over the plate.

“The last couple of games we are playing on a lot bigger fields than we are used to, so we are having a lot of throwing errors. We are just working on the small things with bigger players and bigger fields.”