Sidney seniors handle Westco

About 24 hours before the Sidney senior American Legion team played the Class A Westco (Scottsbluff) Zephyrs at Legion Field Thursday night, Kyle Burton made it clear to the coaching staff, he wanted the ball.

Though Burton didn't receive his answer until shortly before he threw his first pitch, it soon became clear the coaches' confidence in him was well placed.

With six strong innings from Burton and an outstanding finish by closer Jake Heeren, the Post #17 seniors defeated Westco for the first time since 2013 and just the second time since 2009. With the 9-4 victory, Sidney advanced its season mark to 6-8 that includes wins in three of its last four games.

"It's a huge confidence booster," said head coach Ray Witt. "Now these guys know they can go out and play with this team. There's not another team we'll play in districts that can play at the level of the team we just beat."

Thursday's game was a big contrast from the last time these two teams squared off. On June 2, Westco toppled Post #17, 13-1, in Scottsbluff.

With the seniors win, Post #17 was able to salvage one of the two games in the junior-senior doubleheader. The juniors opened the night with a 9-1 loss to Westco, which was marred by five fielding errors and just four hits.

Garrett Langrell pitched his first game of the season at the junior level as the starter. Langrell was relieved by Spencer Ellwanger, who was also making his first appearance on the hill this season.

"Garrett came out great and we had some letdowns in the field, and we kind of got flat after that," Witt said. "We knew we had four games coming up over the weekend so we wanted to save some arms by going with Garrett and Spencer. Now we've learned we've got two kids who are going to go out there and throw strikes."

Connor Langrell had an RBI-single in the third inning to plate Sidney's only run.

In the senior contest, the top of the Post #17 lineup proved a hard puzzle for Zephyrs' hurlers Eric Olsen and Jackson Hinze to solve. The top three in the Sidney order went a combined 6 for 9 with three doubles and seven RBIs.

The hit parade included Keaton Wakefield, Bradey Holtz and Heeren all collecting a pair of hits including a double. Holtz and Heeren each collected three RBIs with Wakefield adding another. Zack Means and Mitch Rolls had the other two Sidney hits. Wakefield and Jason Hagerman each scored two runs.

After Burton silenced the Westco bats in the first inning, Sidney took the lead in the home first. Heeren tallied the run after he drew a base-on-balls and later crossed the plate on a fielding error.

Though Westco tied the contest at 1-1 in the top of the third, Rolls opened the bottom of the frame with a line-drive single to left. When Rolls advanced to second on a wild pitch, Wakefield walked and Holtz layed down a perfect sacrifice bunt. Rolls then scored on Heeren's grounder to third and Wakefield crossed on an error. Once Rolls added his run, Sidney was ahead to stay.

One inning later, with Sidney holding a 3-2 lead, the locals increased their advantage by four more runs. Arik Doty scored Post #17's fourth run on what was the first of two Sidney doubles in the inning.

After Hagerman reached on an error, Wakefield's two bagger sent Doty home. Holtz then hit a hard single to center to send Hagerman and Wakefield to the plate. Heeren was the power behind the seventh Sidney run with his drive to deep left that went for a double scoring Holtz.

"That one to left field I thought was gone, but the wind was blowing in and held it up," Heeren said. "I've been seeing the ball real well."

Hagerman and Holtz scored a pair of insurance runs in the sixth before Witt handed the ball to Heeren. The Sidney closer fanned all three hitters he faced on just 10 pitches. The first two went down swinging and the third looking. Heeren mixed in some hard breaking curve balls to his overpowering fastball.

"I threw some fastballs before so I think they were expecting something a little faster," Heeren said.

Added Witt on his pitchers, "K.B. did really well and of course he wanted to finish. But we were going to see the 5-6-7 hitters for the fourth time. So we decided why not let Jake come in and finish the job and give those hitters a different look."

The juniors jump right back into action on Friday with their opening game of the Gering Juniors Tournament. They will first face Chadron at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, Post #17 will take on Alliance at 4:30 p.m. and Gering at 7 p.m. Bridgeport will be the foe on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

The seniors are off until Sunday when they welcome Laramie (Wyo.) to Legion Field for a doubleheader. The opener is scheduled for 1 p.m. With so many common players on both the junior and senior roster, Sidney will take some Babe Ruth players to Gering on Sunday to fill out its roster.

BOXSCORES

Juniors

Westco 9, Sidney 1

Westco 031 031 1 – 9 13 0

Sidney 001 000 0 – 1 4 5

Westco: Gunnar Buchhammer, Tristan Ramirez (7) and Brady Sinot. Sidney: Garrett Langrell, Spencer Ellwanger (5) and Arik Doty.

2B: Carlos Felix (W).

Seniors

Sidney 9, Westco (Scottsbluff) 4

Westco 001 102 0 – 4 5 2

Sidney 102 402 x – 9 8 3

Westco: Eric Olsen, Jackson Hinze (4) and Cooper Buchhammer. Sidney: Kyle Burton, Jake Heeren (7) and Bradey Holtz.

2B: Jake Heeren (S), Bradey Holtz (S), Keaton Wakefield (S).