Sidney juniors, seniors sweep Torrington

With Senior Night as a focus of the evening, it would have been hard to imagine a more fitting ending to Post #17's junior-senior doubleheader than a walk-off hit by senior Jason Hagerman to complete a two-game sweep.

With junior districts opening up in Gering on Friday and seedings in the double-elimination tournament already established, the younger set from Sidney was in preparation mode for a run at making state. They turned back the Torrington Tigers, 11-3, at Legion Field with the help of solid defense and three strong pitching performances.

Meanwhile, with the senior district tournament still two weeks away, it was all out for the veterans as they too found little resistance from the Tigers. Hagerman's two-out RBI blow sealed a 9-1, six-inning victory.

While the juniors are more focused on setting themselves up for a postseason run, the seniors continue to battle their way through the regular season with still plenty left to play for. Bradey Holtz stymied Torrington for five innings as he gave up just one unearned run before Lane Harvey picked up the final three outs on four strikeouts. Harvey's first victim reached first after the third strike made it past catcher Arik Doty.

"We still have five games left to play with our district seeding on the line," said Holtz, who mixed in some curve balls and knuckle balls with a steady diet of fastballs to get the win. "I think we're finally realizing that it's time to get serious and start winning games."

Connor Langrell opened the night on the hill for the juniors and gave up a pair of runs on two hits in the first inning. He set the Tigers down in order in his second and final inning after fanning two and walking none. Keaton Wakefield hurled the the third and fourth innings. He gave up a run on three hits while walking one and fanning three. The final act belonged to Zack Means, who surrendered a hit, a walk and struck out three in two shutout innings.

"We wanted to get as many kids as possible some pitching time in the juniors game and use it as kind of a bullpen session with live hitting," said head coach Ray Witt. "Tomorrow, it will be the same kind of helter-skelter thing with the juniors pitching. There's really no sense in showing (Chadron) anything at this point."

District-rival Chadron will be the juniors final regular-season opponent on Wednesday night on the road. Chadron is the top seed for districts, while Sidney is No. 4. Post #17 will meet No. 3 Alliance at 4 p.m. at Oregon Trail Park on Friday. The other seeds include No. 2 Ogallala, No. 5 Gering and No. 6 Hershland.

Districts for the seniors open on July 24 on Sidney's home field.

Though the junior Tigers plated two runs in the visitor's first, Sidney batted around in the bottom of the frame to take the lead for good.

Four consecutive one-out singles by Doty, Langrell, Means and Brett Jaggers helped set the juniors on their way to victory. Langrell's knock plated the first run, while Jaggers blow tied the game at 2-2. Sidney catcher Garrett Langrell then put Post #17 ahead to stay with a two-RBI single and a 4-2 advantage.

The juniors strung together a walk and three more hits with two outs in the second to add another pair of runs to its column. After Connor Langrell walked and swiped second, Means singled and Jaggers drove the pair home with two more RBI. Spencer Ellwanger stroked a third consecutive hit, but was left stranded after stealing second.

Means added a sacrifice fly to plate the second run of the third after Logan Sircy scored earlier on an error. Sircy opened the stanza with a perfectly executed bunt down the third-base line. Doty added an RBI in the fourth with a bases loaded walk and had the game-ending RBI two frames later. Byron Rowley doubled in the sixth and Wakefield singled to set up a Doty to end the game via the mercy ruler.

Like the juniors before them, the seniors wasted little time in denting the scoreboard. Wakefield, Holtz and Harvey opened the home first with bases on balls. Wakefield scored first on a wild pitch and Means drove home Holtz on a sacrifice fly. Harvey gave Sidney a 3-0 lead when he crossed on an error. An inning later Sidney went up 4-0 courtesy of an RBI triple by Harvey.

Holtz plated an unearned run for Sidney in the fourth before Sidney struck three times with two outs in the fifth. Ben Goble had the big hit with a two-RBI double. The sixth inning started on a walk to Jake Heeren after he ripped a shot down the left-field line that was inches foul. Heeren eventually scored the final run on the Hagerman blow that ended the game by the mercy rule.

"I'm always looking for the first ball down the middle and that's what he gave me," said Hagerman of his game-winning hit. "It was a fastball right down the middle."

Hagerman, Holtz and Harvey were the three seniors honored before the game.

Sidney's game at Chadron starts at 5 p.m. with the juniors. The seniors will follow at about 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY'S LEGION BOXSCORES

Juniors

Sidney 11, Torrington 3

Torrington 200 100 – 3 5 0

Sidney 422 102 – 11 12 0

Sidney: Connor Langrell, Keaton Wakefield (3), Zack Means (5) and Garrett Langrell. Torrington: Devin Flores, Jarod Myrtle (4) and Brody Lay.

2B: Byron Rowley (S).

Seniors

Sidney 9, Torrington 1

Torrington 000 100 – 1 3 4

Sidney 310 131 – 9 5 2

Sidney: Bradey Holtz, Lane Harvey (6) and Arik Doty. Torrington: Jace McNamee, Brett Guth (6) and Brice Hill.

2B: Arik Doty (S), Ben Goble (S). 3B: Lane Harvey (S).