The Blair Senior Legion baseball team traveled to Yankton, S.D., last weekend for the Lewis & Clark Classic tournament.
The Post 154 Bears played four games Friday and Saturday, going 3-1 in those contests. Due to an unfavorable tiebreaker, though, coach James Bilslend's team fell short of advancing onto Sunday's final day of competition.
On Saturday, Blair topped Post 164 of Spearfish, S.D., before a 9-8 defeat to the hometown Yankton squad. The Bears 10-5 win came with a 10-7 advantage in hits.
Tanner Jacobson, Nate Wachter and Greyson Kay each tallied two hits against Spearfish. Jacobson, Wachter, Conner O'Neil and Bo Nielsen notched two RBIs apiece, too.
Post 154 pitchers Morgan Rump, Eli Morgan and Blaine Rosenbaum combined for all five innings on the mound. Rump threw three, striking out six batters for the win.
In Post 154's loss, though, Yankton scored two runs during the bottom of the seventh inning, winning by one. Wachter had two more RBIs, while Rump and he each went 3-for-4. Dylan Swanson — who also struck out seven batters on the mound — Jacobson and O'Neil knocked in runs, too.
First, though, Post 154 outscored Post 911 and a Huron, S.D., team 23-8 across two games Friday in Yankton. The Bears bested Post 911 in their opener, 12-5.
Nielsen, Joe Rodriguez and Rump led coach Bilslend's team at the plate during the five-inning victory. Nielsen was 3-for-3 with two RBIs, while Rump and Rodriguez each tallied three RBIs.
Blair's Morgan, Ethan Baessler and Kay knocked in runs as well.
Then, against Huron, the Bears won 11-3 with Wachter and O'Neil notching three RBIs apiece. Rump had two and Jacobson added one, too.
Before its South Dakota stint, Post 154 hosted and defeated Springfield at Vets Field, 8-2. The Bears scored three first inning runs and two in the second, outhitting Post 143 15-3 for the June 8th game.
Dylan Swanson, Greyson Kay and Tyler Andersen all went 3-for-4 at the plate, while Ethan Baessler and Morgan Rump added two hits apiece. Conner O'Neil led the team with two RBIs.
Five Blair pitchers — Andersen, Bo Nielsen, Eli Morgan, Swanson and O'Neil — combined efforts in the home victory, the Bears' third of the summer season.
The Post 154 Juniors, meanwhile, earned their first victory of the Legion campaign against Springfield that same night. Max Rump earned the 8-2 pitching win, allowing just seven hits over seven innings.
Lee Chavez-Lara and Nelson Kosch each notched three hits, while Kosch had four RBIs.
POST 154 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Saturday
Yankton 9, Blair 8
BLAIR (6-4) 0 0 5 0 0 3 0 — 8 15 5
YKTN 0 0 1 0 6 0 2 — 9 8 3
Blair 10, Spearfish 5
BLAIR (6-3) 6 1 0 3 0 — 10 10 1
SPEAR 0 0 0 0 5 — 5 7 1
Friday
Blair 11, Huron 3
HURON 0 0 1 0 1 1 — 3 4 1
BLAIR (5-3) 2 0 3 3 0 3 — 11 15 2
Blair 12, Post 911 5
BLAIR (4-3) 1 4 0 6 1 — 12 14 0
Post 911 0 0 3 0 2 — 5 2 0
June 8
Blair 8, Springfield 2
SPRING 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 — 2 3 3
BLAIR (3-3) 3 2 0 0 0 3 0 — 8 15 4
Fort Calhoun beats West Point
The Zig Drywall Post 348 Pioneers snapped their four-game losing streak to start the Senior Legion summer season Friday, topping West Point 3-1 in eight innings.
Fort Calhoun won with two runs during the top of the eighth frame. Kenny Wellwood reached base first on a one-out walk before Avery Quinlan stepped in to run the bases. Ty Hallberg then singled, setting up Tristan Furhman's go-ahead RBI knock.
Hallberg later scored, too, putting the Pioneers ahead by two runs going into the bottom half. They held off West Point with Levi Lasher earning the pitching win and Sam Genoways claiming a save with two strikeouts.
Post 348 scored its first run during the third inning when Fuhrman hit a two-out single to plate Zach Faucher.
Fort Calhoun lost a pair of games to Waterloo-Valley on Wednesday, though. The Juniors fell 15-12 before the Seniors dropped a 11-3 game in five innings.
The elder team scored first in Valley, but trailed 6-1 after just one inning. Fuhrman scored for Post 348 first before Harrison Schmitt scored during the fourth inning on Fuhrman's bases-loaded walk.
Lastly, during the top of the fifth inning, Chase Premer knocked in Justin Myer for the Pioneers' third and last run of the game. Waterloo-Valley scored their own run during the bottom half, ending the game by run-rule.
POST 348 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Friday
Fort Calhoun 3, West Point 1, 8 inn.
FC (1-4) 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 — 3
WP 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1
June 8
Waterloo-Valley 11, Fort Calhoun 3, 5 inn.
FC (0-4) 1 0 0 1 1 — 3
WV 6 1 2 1 1 — 11
Arlington starts wood bat tourney 1-1
The Arlington Senior Legion baseball team's season record was 6-5 after Saturday's 1-1 start to the Max “Bud” Greve Wood Bat Tournament in Wayne and Wakefield.
The Post 71 Eagles beat Wayne Post 43, 8-7, in Wayne before dropping a 7-6 contest to Wahoo State Bank at Eaton Field in Wakefield. Coach Ed Menking's squad earned a 5-0 lead against Wahoo before its opposition scored the game-winning run in the seventh inning, completing the comeback.
Ever team in Arlington's pool play group went 1-1 through its first two tournament games. The Eagles advanced into Sunday's play due to tiebreaker. Results from the final day of the wood bat event will appear in Friday's Arlington Citizen and Washington County Enterprise newspapers.
Before tournament play began, however, Post 71 lost 6-1 home game to West Point on June 8. The Bombers led from the top of the first inning on, outhitting the Eagles 7-4 for the game.
Trevor Denker plated Kaden Pittman during the first inning on a double, but Arlington west scoreless from there. Even so, coach Menking's squad trailed only 3-1 going into the top of the seventh inning at the Washington County Fairgrounds.
The home loss followed a 4-1 Post 71 Juniors win. Tyler Ott notched the complete game pitching victory.
POST 71 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Saturday
Wahoo State Bank 7, Arlington 6
ARL (6-5); Line score unavailable.
Arlington 8, Wayne Post 43 7
ARL (6-4); Line score unavailable.
June 8
West Point 6, Arlington 1
WP 2 0 1 0 0 0 3 — 6 7 0
ARL (5-4) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 4 0
