Local teams are winding down their seasons

HARTINGTON — Hartington American Legion baseball is heading into its final week of play with some big hopes for strong swan songs.

The Hartington Seniors went 1-1 last week and stood 4-4 heading into this Friday’s finale at Creighton.

They lost to Creighton 16-4 on July 12 in the final contest of the Elkhorn Valley League Tournament before beating O’Neill 13-4 on July 14.

The Creighton loss relegated the Seniors to tournament runner up.

“I have full confidence the seniors will be ready to play next week and end the season on a high note,” Hartington American Legion president and coach Don Whitmire said.

In the O’Neill win, Hartington knocked out 14 hits and were led by four from Chase Lammers while Brett Klienschmit added three and Brady Steffen and Kerby Hochstein had two apiece.

Kleinschmit finished with four RBI to pace the attack.

Jacob Keiser struck out 10 batters over 6.1 innings to earn the win.

With two games left, the Hartington Juniors, at 4-1, have guaranteed themselves a winning record in this abbreviated summer season.

The Juniors won their only game last week, an 8-1 rout last Tuesday.

“Lukas Wortmann threw a gem,” Whitmire said. “Defensively, we played very well behind Lukas and we were able to find ways to score runs. The juniors team is playing very well and if we continue to play our brand of baseball, we should complete our league season undefeated. The experience we gain this year should set us up well for a state run next year.”

The Juniors played Plainview in Hartington Tuesday and wrap up at 5:45 p.m. Friday at Creighton.

Wortmann allowed only two hits over seven innings for the complete-game win, while O’Neill’s five errors and nine walks were plenty for the team to ride to an easy win.

The Ponies were 2-7 heading into Tuesday’s tournament game against Laurel following a 13-6 shellacking of Summerland in Hartington.

That win followed home losses to Atkinson (5-3) and Laurel (11-2) earlier in the week.

In the loss against Atkinson, Whitmire applauded the team’s pitching and ability to take an early lead that stood up until the late innings.

“You saw the young kids starting to play a little more fundamentally sound in the field and make some plays,” Whitmire said.

Matthew Loecker, Cole Rosener and Logan Eickhoff combined to strike out 10 batters and scatter three hits over six innings in the win over Summerland.

“Our pitching set the tone and our lineup was able to score a few runs,” Whitmire said. “We put the ball in play and ran the bases well which allowed us to build a lead and earn a win ahead of our firstround game for the tournament next week. It should be a good game if we remember to stay fundamentally sound and our pitching continues to consistently throw the ball over the plate.”

The Ponies got 13 hits against Summerland with Brayden Reifenrath and Ayden Rosener each recording a team-high two hits apiece. Rosener led the team with three RBI.