Sidney Legion Competes in B-7

Sidney's American Legion baseball team traveled to Alliance last weekend to compete in the Class B Area 7 junior baseball tournament. Sidney won two games and lost two games in the four days they competed.

On Friday, Sidney faced Chadron in their first game, and got off to a hot start by scoring five runs in the first inning. Kyler Lenzen pitched effectively, and never gave the opposing offense a chance to get back in the game. Sidney played solid and smart defense, limiting Chadron's ability to score off of errors and miscues.

Sidney's bats were hot the entire contest, with Kyler Lenzen and Paul Kratzer both going 3-for-3 with an RBI, Jackson Witt going 2-for-3 with an RBI, Paul Houser going 2-for-3 with two RBI's and a double, and Tommy Ellwanger going 1-for-3 with a triple in the 14-to-3 victory.

On Saturday Sidney faced a tough Alliance team, and was able to stay with them for the first two innings of the game which were scoreless.

Dante Petersen pitched well, but in the third he lost control of his pitches and loaded the bases with walks and hit-by-pitches against Alliance's first three hitters. Alliance then started to get their hits, and scored six runs in the inning.

Grant Campbell took over the pitching duties for Sidney in the fifth inning, and was able to shut down the Alliance offense in the frame. But Alliance was able to figure out Campbell in the sixth inning, and scored four additional runs, and Alliance finished the game with the victory, 11-to-1. Kyler Lenzen went 1-for-2 and scored Sidney's only run, Izaak Glanz went 1-for-3 with an RBI, while Paul Houser, Dante Peterson, and Tommy Ellwanger all went 1-for-2 in the loss.

On Sunday Sidney faced the Chadron team again, and Sidney tapped Paul Kratzer as the starting pitcher. Sidney quickly took the lead , and coach Ray Witt pulled Kratzer in the second inning to save him for a future game.

Grant Campbell relieved Petersen and pitched well the rest of the way, only scattering four hits in the 12-to-2 Sidney victory. Nathan Hofrock went 1-for-4 with two RBI's, Kyler Lenzen went 3-for-3 with an RBI, Grant Campbell went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Jackson Witt went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the loss.

Sidney played their final game on Monday against Gering, and got off to a slow start, trailing Gering 5-to-0 at the end of the second inning. Sidney battled back, scoring a run in the third, and two runs in the fifth while holding Gering scoreless to trim the lead to 5-to-3.

Sidney struggled with their pitching and defense in the fifth inning, and Gering capitalized by scoring eight runs and putting the game out of reach for Sidney. Gering took the victory 13-to-3, and earned a trip to the championship against Alliance. Paul Kratzer led the Sidney offense, going 2-for-3 with two RBI's and a double in the loss.

"Overall I am proud of these guys and how they stepped up and performed. They played well in districts, and we had some players really step up offensively, defensively and on the mound.  We were able to string hits together at times and have good solid plate appearances.  We did have some mental let downs in the field but overall we played some of our best defensive baseball of the season.  I feel the team played much better than what some of the final scores showed.  We let a couple big innings get away from us, which was the difference between wins and losses," Coach Witt commented on the team's performance.