Senior Horns win first two games at state tourney

    The Pinnacle Bank Senior Legion baseball team has had plenty to celebrate at this year’s Class C State Tournament.
    Not only did Imperial win its first two games ever at state, the Horns came from behind in both wins.
    The Seniors didn’t have that problem in the Area 7 championship game against Palmer-Wolbach-Greeley. Imperial led 4-0 before PWG got on the board with a two-run sixth inning. The Horns added a run in the bottom of the inning to claim their state berth with a 5-2 win.
    Mason Wallin went 3-3 in the game. Tysen Lempke knocked in two RBIs.
    Jaret Peterson pitched six innings, striking out six and walking six, before Camron Lempke came on to shut out PWG in the top of the seventh.
Win first ever tourney game
    To say Imperial’s first inning at the state tournament was ugly would be an understatement.
    Matched up with Lincoln Lutheran Chick-Fil-A Post 3, the Horns struggled defensively to start the game.
    Lincoln Lutheran’s first four batters reached base, one walk, one hit by a pitch and two singles. Two Imperial errors helped those batters score and let Lincoln Lutheran load the bases. Even though Lincoln Lutheran batted around, the Horns limited the damage to just four runs.
    Imperial struggled to get going at the plate, but after allowing a Lincoln Lutheran run in the fourth inning, the Horns started to make contact. Peterson doubled to lead off the fourth and Thomas Reeves followed with a single before three Horns retired in order.
    The Seniors continued to keep Lincoln Lutheran from scoring in the fifth and sixth innings, despite letting four of Lincoln Lutheran’s eight batters reach base, and finally started cutting into their 0-5 deficit.
    Cooper Dillan, C. Lempke, Peterson and Reeves each singled in the fifth inning, allowing Imperial to score two runs.
    After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, Lincoln Lutheran led off the seventh inning. Its first two batters reached second but never made it to third base. The bases were loaded when the Horns got the third out.
    Imperial wasn’t to be denied in the bottom of the inning, starting off with a double by Dillan. The Horns bats stayed hot and Lincoln Lutheran never recorded an out in Imperial’s walkoff win. T. Lempke, C. Lempke and Peterson followed Dillan with back-to-back-to-back singles. Lincoln Lutheran missed a chance for a double play when its third baseman froze up on a grounder by Reeves, setting Imperial up for a two-RBI, game-winning single to right field by Gavin Wisnieski.
    Peterson was 4-4 at the plate. Dillan, Reeves and C. Lempke each had two hits.
    Dillan started the game and only gave up two hits, but gave up four runs.
    Carter Leibbrandt came on in relief and gave a strong performance over 6.1 innings. Leibbrandt gave up 12 hits, but only one run. Leibbrandt also only walked two batters in the 6-5 win.
    Also advancing after Day 1 was Dannebrog-Cairo-Boelus with an 11-1 win over Pender, Malcolm which won 10-2 over Wilbur and the hosts, Sheridan County, who beat Hartington 12-10.
Rally after rain delay
    As weather moved in Sunday night, the Horns started their game against Sheridan County, but were forced to finish it Monday morning.
    Just like its win against Lincoln Lutheran, Imperial got off to a rough start against the Regulators.
    The Horns only allowed one hit in the first inning, but gave up two runs with two errors, a walk and a hit batter.
    After being sat down in order their first at bat, the Horns allowed Sheridan County to load the bases in the top of the second inning, before getting a strike out to keep the Regulators off the board.
    Imperial took advantage of Sheridan County mistakes in the bottom of the inning. An error, two passed balls and a balk brought Reeves home. Wallin also scored after singling, then advancing with a stolen base, two errors and a passed ball.
    Both teams were solid defensively in the third inning before the Renegades struck again in the fourth.
    Sheridan County led off the inning with a triple and, as was the story in a game with seven combined errors, got a runner aboard with an Imperial error. The Horns gave up three stolen bases and a double to fall behind 2-5.
    Imperial got one run back after Wallin tripled and scored on a single by Leibbrandt.
    With the Horns trailing 3-5, the rain moved in which suspended the game until Monday morning.
    The break did Imperial good. The Horns didn’t allow a run over the final three innings of the game, including striking out six batters in a row on several long at bats, while scoring six runs themselves.
    Peterson singled and Wallin doubled in the fifth, but back-to-back errors by the Renegades led to three Horns’ runs. The sixth inning started off with back-to-back doubles by Leibbrandt and Dillan, followed by a single by T. Lempke. Peterson also got in on the act with a double himself.
    Overall, the Horns had 10 hits in the 9-5 win. Wallin was 3-4 and Leibbrandt 2-3 at the plate. Seven Horns had an RBI.
    Imperial used four pitchers in the game, Wallin, C. Lempke, Peterson and T. Lempke. The group gave up six hits, struck out 12 and walked four.
    Other Day 2 wins went to Malcolm, 1-0 winners over DCB; Wilbur, 3-1 winners over Pender; and Lincoln Lutheran, which won 8-0 over Hartington.
Drop game to Malcolm
    Imperial went up against the NSAA Class C state champion, Malcolm, later Monday night.
    Imperial was first up to bat and made the most out of Malcolm pitching struggles.
    The Horns batted around in the first inning as three batters were hit by pitches and Malcolm committed two errors allowing the Horns to score four runs. Imperial committed an error also in the bottom of the inning and ended up allowing three runs by Malcolm.
    Imperial got enough going to bring another run home in the top of the second after Malcolm’s pitcher hit another Horns’ batter, but Imperial’s 5-3 lead disappeared in the bottom of the inning with three Malcolm runs. Imperial walked three batters and gave up a double and single to leave Imperial trailing 5-6.
    Over the final five innings, Imperial struggled to get base runners. With the exception of three in the third, the Horns only had three batters reach base. Defensively, Imperial didn’t let Malcolm run away with the game, but it did give up a run in each the fourth and sixth innings to send the Horns to the losers bracket with a 5-8 loss.
    Dillan went 2-2 at the plate. Imperial only walked twice in the game and five batters were hit by pitches to go with six hits.
    Wisnieski and Dillan pitched in the game. They struck out two, walked seven and gave up eight hits.
    Wilbur knocked Sheridan County out of the tournament Monday with a 10-2 win and DCB moved on with a 10-0 win over Lincoln Lutheran.
    Tuesday, Malcolm played Wilbur and Imperial took on DCB. The Horns’ season ended with a 2-19 loss to DCB.
    A recap of the game will be included in next week’s paper.