Andrew Korth hammered a Lincoln Southeast pitch over the left field wall Friday during the Blair High School baseball team's second game of the Bellevue Baseball Invitational.
A lightning delay followed the grand slam thunder shortly thereafter.
The Bears ultimately beat the Knights and finished the three-day tourney 1-2. Coach John Roan's team was sixth out of eight teams.
BHS (7-19 overall) was scheduled to close out its regular season schedule Monday against Lincoln Northwest before it starts Class B District 1 Tournament play Thursday at Omaha Skutt. The Bears open against Platte Valley at 2 p.m. and, if they win, 4:30 against the host Skyhawks. The championship game is Friday.
Fremont blanks Blair
First, though, Blair closed out its Bellevue Baseball Invite run Saturday in the fifth-place game against Fremont.
The Class A Tigers earned the 5-0 win, holding the Bears to just two hits. Brevin Leggott and Finn Soderberg had one each.
Soderberg also struck out four batters on the mound, while Owen Mann sat three down. Aiden McBreen and Nathan Murray pitched for Blair during the five-run loss, too.
BHS beats Southeast
As noted, Korth plated half of BHS' runs Friday during an 8-3 Bellevue Invite win against Lincoln Southeast.
The slugger, in fact, did it on one swing.
Andrew Smutny, Nelson Kosch and Colton Nixon loaded the bases with two singles and a free base before he jumped on a high Knights pitch, cracking it all the way over the wall in left field with his bat. The third-inning grand slam homer pushed the Bears' lead to 7-2 after Coach Roan's team also scored three runs during the first frame.
Nixon and Josh Keough added RBIs during the win, while four pitchers combined to get the job done on the mound. Colton Flynn threw the first two innings before a lightning delay halted play. He struck out two batters, while Brock and Hudson Hamm combined for four in four innings.
Leggott threw a scoreless inning against Lincoln Southeast as well.
Bears fall to No. 5 T-birds
The eighth-seeded Bears started the Bellevue tourney with a tight game against top-seeded Bellevue West on Thursday.
The Class A No. 5 Thunderbirds needed to break a sixth inning tie and did, securing the first-round victory 4-2. The win was their 17th, while the loss was BHS' 18th of the season.
Trailing 2-0, the Bears' Hudson Hamm and Jaxon Logan scored runs to tie the game during the top half of the sixth frame. Hamm finished with one of Blair's six hits as did Leggott, Kosch, Murray, Carter Saylor and Hans Sorensen.
Sorensen, notably, held Bellevue West to just three runs during his 5 1/3 innings on the pitching mound. He struck out two batters, while Smutny struck out one while allowing one hit.
BHS BASEBALL LINE SCORES
Saturday
Fremont 5, Blair 0
BHS (7-19) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 3
FHS (10-14) 2 0 0 1 2 0 X — 5 3 0
Friday
Blair 8, Lincoln Southeast
BHS (7-18) 3 0 4 0 0 0 1 — 8 12 2
LSE (8-16) 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 — 3 4 1
Thursday
No. 5 Bellevue West 4, Blair 2
BHS (6-18) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 — 2 6 2
BW (17-8) 1 0 0 1 0 2 X — 4 4 4
