Miscues plague Sidney juniors team

After being involved in a pitchers duel for about five innings, defensive miscues by Sidney and a few timely hits by Chadron conspired to upend the Post #17 juniors 6-2 at Legion Field on Tuesday night.

Though the juniors were scheduled to be the opening act in a junior-senior doubleheader, the senior game was halted by lightning after just a half inning. Zack Means pitched a perfect top of the first before umpires called a halt to the proceedings at the first sign of lightning. After a delay of about 45 minutes, the game was postponed.

The juniors (5-4), however, played uninterrupted in a fast-moving game with Sidney hurler Connor Langrell throwing blanks for four innings. Unfortunately, he was matched by Chadron's Coy Bila though as he tossed three innings of shutout baseball.

When all was said and done, Bila went the distance to get the comeback win after surrendering three hits, three walks and nine strikeouts.

Langrell scattered seven hits and two walks over five-plus innings while striking out seven and surrendering five runs with just two earned. Mitch Rolls relieved Langrell with the sacks full in the sixth and finished the game. He was charged with just one run against, though three inherited runners all scored.

"It was tough to see a nice outing like (Langrell's) fall apart with errors in the field," said head coach Ray Witt. "Mitch came on in a very difficult situation, but Connor's pitch count was getting up near 100 so it was time to make the change. Any time you have as many errors as hits, you're going to struggle."

While both pitchers threw blanks over the first half of the game, Sidney was first to strike in the fourth.

Langrell led off with a single to right and was replaced on the base paths by courtesy runner Zach Holtz. Holtz scored the first run of the game after a long double to center by Keaton Wakefield.

Wakefield later stole third and home to give Sidney a 2-0 lead.

Once Sidney grabbed the first lead, however, its defense helped Chadron get back into the game.

After Langrell fanned the first batter, two consecutive errors led to a Chadron run. Another error surrounded by three hits led to five more runs for Chadron in the sixth frame.

"When I was out there I was just thinking I was going to go after the hitters and if they hit it, they hit it," Langrell said. "It's a little frustrating to lose that one, but we fought until the end."

The juniors and seniors will be back in action on Wednesday and Thursday nights with a pair of home doubleheaders.

League opponent Gordon will be first in to Legion Field with the junior game set to begin at 5 p.m. The seniors will follow at about 7:30 p.m.

The starting times will be the same on Thursday when Class A Westco (Scottsbluff) visits Sidney.

BOXSCORE

Juniors

Chadron 6, Sidney 2

Chadron 000 015 0 – 6 10 3

Sidney 000 200 0 – 2 3 3

Chadron: Coy Bila and Jayden Stack. Sidney : Connor Langrell, Mitch Rolls (6) and Garrett Langrell.

2B – Keaton Wakefield (S).