Juniors Tourney Drive Falls Short

Sidney's American Legion Post 17 Junior squads competed in the area District Tournament hosted by Sidney over the weekend, and both the Junior 1 and Junior 2 teams fell short against the area competition in the double elimination tournament.

The Junior 2 squad led off the tournament against the No. 1 seeded Alliance Spartans on Friday, with the Sidney squad designated as the visiting team. The Spartan's Nolan Nagaki made short work of the Sidney lineup in the first inning, setting the Juniors down in order while the Alliance bats started out hot in the bottom of the first inning.

Starting off the inning with a triple and a fly out to score the first run, Alliance poured it on with a home run by Mario Garza and another triple to take a 5-to-0 at the end of the first inning.

Alliance continued the offense by scoring two more runs in the second, three runs in the third, then another in the fourth to earn the victory 11-to-0 in a four inning run-rule shortened contest. Sidney only managed two hits against the Spartans in the loss.

The Junior 2 squad then faced off against the Chadron Nationals, this time as the designated home team. Unfortunately, that did not change the fortunes of the Junior 2 squad as their offense was again shut down by tough pitching and only collected one hit in the contest.

The Chadron team was able to pull away with an eight run second inning, and a total of eight errors by the Junior 2 squad made a comeback impossible. Sidney lost the game by a final score of 16-to-1, and were eliminated from the tournament.

The Junior 1 squad started the tournament on Friday evening against Gering B&C Steel, and fell behind 3-to-0 quickly when starter Micah Schneider had control problems and issued three walks in the inning. Sidney was able to strike back in the bottom of the second inning with two singles then three straight walks to start the inning.

Sidney scored four runs to take a 4-to-3 lead, then continued to pull away by scoring three more runs over the next three innings to take a 7-to-3 lead going into the sixth inning. Schneider had been cruising through the middle innings, but the Gering squad was able to manufacture a couple of runs on an error in the outfield, then rode the momentum to score five runs in the inning to take an 8-to-7 lead.

Sidney did not score in the bottom of the inning, and the teams went to the seventh with Gering holding on to one run lead. Lefty Sam Hashman was brought in to pitch for Sidney, and after striking out the first batter, gave up a single to right field. But Hashman was able to pick off the runner at first, then induce a fly out to get out of the inning without giving up any runs.

Sidney got their last chance in the bottom of the seventh, and with two men on via a single and a walk, Sawyer Dickman was able to score from third on a passed ball to tie the game.

Then Nolan Hofrock scored on another passed ball, ending the game in a 9-to-8 victory for Sidney. Dietrich Lecher went 2-for-3 with a run scored to lead the offense.

Sidney next faced Ogallala on Saturday, and fell behind early 3-to-1 at the end of the first inning. Sidney fought back by scoring a run in the second to narrow the Ogallala lead, but a five run fourth inning put the game out of reach for Sidney, and they fell by a final score of 11-to-3. Facing elimination, the Junior 1 squad squared off against the Chadron Nationals in a game that featured multiple lead changes, and an exciting finish.

After notching two runs in the top of the first, Luke Kasten started the game on the mound for Sidney and gave up five hits and three runs in the bottom of the inning. Sidney tied the game at three in the second inning, but Chadron was again able to take a lead by scoring two in the bottom of the third making the score 5-to-3. But the Sidney offense showed a lot of discipline in the fourth inning, and after two walks and a single put runners on base, Sawyer Dickman doubled to centerfield, scoring two runs to tie the game at five.

But Chadron took the lead again at the end of the inning with another run, followed by Sidney clawing back with a run of their own in the sixth inning to tie the game at six going into the seventh inning.

Sidney was unable to score and break the tie in their half of the inning, but Gering was able to get a runner in scoring position against reliever Jaeden Dillehay after a walk and a sacrifice bunt.

After a wild pitch moved the runner to third base, Gering's Dawson Dunbar was able to notch a single, and scored the runner from third to give Gering the 7-to-6 walk off victory and eliminate Sidney from the tournament.

Sawyer Dickman had two RBI's for Sidney while both Micah Schneider and Luke Kasten had two hits each in the loss.