Justin Fluke
7-22-10
The American Legion Zone 1 Baseball Tournament has been extended one game and another day as Doniphan County staved off elimination for the third and fourth straight games on Thursday night and forced a winner-take-all championship Friday at 7:30 against Seneca. Doniphan County beat Sabetha 9-0 Thursday night before holding off Seneca 8-7 in a wild night-cap.
In the first game, Colin Greaser looked sharp in his first pitching outing of the month tossing a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts against Sabetha. Greaser allowed only a ground-ball single to Ross Bruggeman and was named the Subway Player of the Game after also working a couple leadoff walks and scoring two runs. DC took a 3-0 lead in the first on RBI hits by Elliot Nold and Paden Halter and Bryce Paden added a two-run homer in the second. Sabetha starter Brock Boldra took the loss and was chased in the fifth when Doniphan County added four runs. Sabetha also had two huge errors that led to seven of the runs as they end their season at 20-11 getting denied a fourth straight appearance at state.
Doniphan County got three more innings from Greaser on the mound in their next game against Seneca but three infield hits and an error gave Post 21 a 3-0 advantage going into the fifth inning. Derek Rottinghaus came on as the third pitcher for Seneca with two runners on and allowed three hits followed by two errors as Doniphan County plated six runs all with two outs to take the fifth inning lead. Post 55 led 6-4 going into the seventh when they added two runs on a Bryce Paden hit and the insurance would be needed as Seneca rallied with three runs in their final at-bat but left the tying run on base. Paden, who is 7-11 with 6 RBI in the last three games was the Subway Player of the Game. Greaser and Brett Hontz each added a couple hits and RBI for DC as they improved to 18-8. Elliot Nold went two plus innings in relief of Greaser for the win and Jerad Hawkins recorded the final four outs by strikeout for the save. Brandon Schmitz and Dylan Blevins had two hits for Seneca who also had starting pitcher Kyle Haverkamp ejected late and fell to 16-6 with their first loss of the Zone 1 Tournament.
Doniphan County stranded 13 runners and also overcame a controversial infield fly non-call in the first inning that prevented any runs scoring despite three hits. They look to qualify for state for the third straight year while Seneca tries to make state for the first time in more than a decade. Friday‘s 7:30 championship can be heard live on Kanzaland Radio with the winner heading to Marysville for state on Wednesday at 1:00.
Atchison is one win away from a return trip to the Triple-A State Legion Tournament. The A‘s beat Leavenworth 15-0 Thursday as Brett Norris pitched a complete game with 14 strikeouts for the win. Thad Hawk homered for the third straight game and Hunter Olberding also went deep for Atchison who plays at noon Saturday.
Falls City legion won their opener in the Classs B Area 1 Tournament in Sryacuse, Nebraska beating the host team 6-4 on Thursday. Falls City is now 19-8 and plays third seed Beatrice Friday at 5:00 PM.
wireready.com
|
