Blair Post 154 slugger Lucas Matejka was on the hunt Friday during the first day of the Don Kraft Memorial Tournament at Omaha Buena Vista.
“It's not the biggest field out there, but it's a nice field and I just knew I could probably put one out today,” he said after a fifth-inning homer against Louisville/Weeping Water. “So, yeah, I was swinging kind of hard — harder than normal, I should say.”
Coach James Bilslend's Senior Legion baseball team won the opener 14-3 in five innings before continuing play Saturday and adding two more victories. The tourney continued Sunday with results set to be published in Friday's Washington County Enterprise edition.
Against Louisville, five Blair batters notched 10 RBIs. Matejka was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while Aiden McBreen was 1-for-2 with a triple for his three.
Brevin Leggott notched two RBIs during Post 154's eight-run first inning, while Nelson Kosch and Colton Flynn plated one run each during the 11-run victory.
Colton Nixon notched an extra-base hit, too, but Matejka's home run traveled the furthest of any Blair knock. It came on a medium high fastball down the middle of the strike zone, he said.
“I knew I couldn't miss that,” the slugger continued. “So, I just swung and it went over the fence.”
Blair's Brock Hamm, meanwhile, did all of his work during the win on the mound. He struck out four batters across five innings, throwing 79 pitches.
The right-hander's start took awhile to come to fruition, though. The tournament game was delayed from its original start time by an hour and Hamm didn't get to pitch until his team was done scoring eight runs during the top half of the first frame.
“I was getting a little antsy to get back out there on the field and pitch again,” he said. “But I was able to go back out there and kind of find my rhythm. Get where I needed to get.”
Hamm walked six batters, but was able to take some deep breaths and save Post 154's pitching for the rest of the Don Kraft tournament.
“I was able to do that and push myself to win the game,” he said.
Hamm's team topped two more opponents Saturday, too. It first beat Trinity Bears Post 339 14-11 before a 7-4 victory against the Millard Sox Seniors.
The Post 339 game was back-and-forth. Blair trailed 3-1 through one inning, but led 6-5 through two. Trinity retook the lead with four runs in the third, but a seven-run fourth-frame allowed Post 154 to earn the victory.
Kosch, however, hit an RBI double in the first inning against the Sox to get things started. Blair built a 4-0 lead from there before Millard tied the game at 4-all during the top of the third frame.
Then, in the bottom half of the third, Coach Bilslend's team took the lead for good when Hans Sorensen plated Andrew Smutny.
Post 154 was scheduled to play Omaha Concordia on June 25, too, but the game was called off due to a wet field.
Juniors start tourney 1-2
The Blair Post 154 Juniors, meanwhile, went 1-2 Friday and Saturday during the three-day Millard Sox JV Tournament.
The Blair squad started competition with a 13-0 rout of the Millard Sox Gold. Colton Scheer led the way with three RBIs, while Ike Petersen had two. Jaxon Logan, Landon Bernasek, Parker Jennings, Tucker Storjohann, Crosby Swanson and Lane Christensen all had one apiece, too.
Storjohann pitched four innings, striking out two batters in the win. Grady Grabbe struck out another Sox player in one frame of relief, too.
The next day wasn't as successful for Post 154, though. It first lost to the Invictus Eagles from Omaha Central, 6-5, before a 7-6 loss to Omaha Concordia.
Logan led Blair against the Eagles, going 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Beransek was 3-for-4 with three RBIs in defeat against Concordia.
POST 154 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Saturday
Blair 7, Millard Sox Seniors 4, 6 inn.
MSS 0 0 4 0 0 0 — 4
BLAIR (14-8) 3 1 1 2 0 0 — 7
Blair 14, Trinity Bears Post 339 11, 5 inn.
TPB 3 2 4 2 0 — 11
BLAIR (13-8) 1 5 0 7 1 — 14
Friday
Blair 14, Louisville/Weeping Water 3, 5 inn.
BLAIR (12-8) 8 3 1 0 2 — 14 9 0
LWW 0 1 1 1 0 — 3 4 5
