Rough Stretch for Legion Baseball

Sidney's American Legion Post 17 Junior and Senior teams had difficulty over the past week with their opponents and the weather. Thunderstorms scuttled some of the games late in the week, while the quality of the opponents the Legion boys faced resulted in some lopsided losses for the Sidney squads.

Last Tuesday, the Junior 1 and Senior teams traveled to Bridgeport, and after a significant rain delay, the Juniors went to work, burying the Bridgeport Bombers Junior team in a 17-to-1 victory, the lone bright spot for the teams over the past week.

The first inning started with the Juniors scoring their first run after three walks and a hit batsman. Micah Schneider grounded into a double play that plated a run, then Sawyer Dickman scored the inning's third run on a passed ball.

Starting pitcher Luke Kasten gave up a run in the bottom of the first, but Sidney responded in the second by scoring three more runs with two outs by again taking advantage of walks, errors, and passed balls to bring the score to 6-to-1. After giving up a harmless single and no runs in the second, Sidney put up four more runs with two on a Kasten double, another on a Ethan Reichman ground out, and Dickman scored again on a passed ball. Sidney ran up the score to 17-to-1 in their half of the fourth, and after retiring the side in the bottom of the inning, the Juniors took the victory in a run-rule shortened game, 17-to-1. Kasten earned the victory pitching four innings while giving up one run on five hits, and struck out five. Dietrich Lecher went 2-for-2 with three RBI's to lead the offense, which collected eight hits and drew 12 walks in the game.

The Seniors were up next, and their string of victories against Bridgeport came to an end when the Bombers jumped on Sidney starter Izaak Glanz in the first inning, putting up three runs to start the game. Sidney was able to tie the game in the top of the second with Tommy Ellwanger and Zach Holtz driving in runs and Nathan Hofrock scoring on a bases loaded walk.

The Seniors were able to keep the Bombers off the board in their half of the inning, then scored another run in the top of the third to take a 4-to-3 lead, but the Bombers exploded in the bottom of third for eight runs, effectively wrapping up the game. Sidney would lose by a final score of 13-to-5. Both Hofrock and Ellwanger scored two runs each, and Glanz managed three strikeouts over 2.1 innings of work.

On Wednesday, both the Juniors and Seniors traveled to Chadron and lost their games. The Juniors and the FNBNP Nationals battled through the first three innings with no score, then the Chadron team broke through with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning off of starter Jaeden Dillehay with a combination of errors and passed balls. Sidney went down in order in the top of the fifth inning, then Chadron put up two more runs on bases loaded walks.

The Juniors finally broke through in the top of the sixth when Luke Kasten started the inning off with a walk, then was driven in to score when Dietrich Lecher reached first on an error. But that was all the offense the Sidney squad could muster, and fell by a final score of 6-to-1 in seven innings. Dillehay went 3.2 innings and struck out four batters in the loss.

The Seniors were up next, and the game against the Chadron squad started out tight, with Sidney's Zach Holtz scoring a run in the first inning on a wild pitch, then Chadron scoring a run in the bottom of the second off of starter Zach Holtz on a RBI single to right field. Sidney was able to plate three runs off of sloppy defense by the Chadron team in the top of the third, but the hosts fought right back and put up three runs of their own in the bottom of the frame to tie the game at 4-to-4. Chadron then added four runs in the fourth inning then four more in the fifth inning to sink the Seniors by a final score of 13-to-6. Holtz went four full innings in the loss, giving up eight runs while striking out five, and Izaak Glanz lead the offense with two RBI's in the game.

Finally, the Junior 2 team hosted McCook for a double header on Saturday, and as Gold Rush Days were in full swing in Legion Park, the Sidney boys struggled against the visitors a short walk away at Legion Field. The first game started out badly for Sidney, with McCook plating five runs in the first inning, and a seven run explosion by the visitors put the first game out of reach for the home team.

With a final score of 14-to-3 in the first game, the Juniors tried to salvage a split and take the second game, but after starting out well and keeping the game close, the McCook team went on an offensive tear, and buried the Junior 2 team by a final score of 25-to-3 in a run-rule shortened game, ending a tough week for the teams.