DISTRICT B7 SENIOR LEGION BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: Sidney falls to Chadron to end season

Though it started out on a hopeful note, the Sidney American Legion senior baseball team was eliminated from the Class B, Area 7 district tournament on Sunday after suffering a 9-0 loss to the Chadron Nationals at Legion Field.

While the Sidney seniors finished the tournament with a loss to the Nationals, they opened play by defeating Chadron with a dramatic come-from-behind 7-3 victory on Friday evening. In their second contest, however, Gering sent Post #17 to its first loss in the double-elimination affair by the count of 6-4. Sidney finished the season with a 13-16 record.

"We're losing three good players, but we'll have a lot of this team coming back," said first-year head coach Ray Witt. "This was a young team that really matured as the season went along. We have plenty to look forward to here, but of course we'll need someone to fill in that (Lane Harvey) spot.

Harvey, though he played only sporadically this season while playing full time in the Denver area, led the team with a batting average that hovered around .400 all season. He was also among the team leaders in RBIs.

"His leadership is what's going to be missed the most," Witt said.

Sidney also loses Kyle Burton and Jason Hagerman, both of whom started all three district games. Burton was Sidney's pitching ace this season and was a consistent bat with a better than .300 average. Hagerman gained most of his playing time in right field. He was a contact hitter who seldom struck out and hit better than .260 for the season.

Trailing 3-2 with one out and the bases empty in the top of the seventh inning of Friday's opener, the locals were in desperate need of baserunners. When Jake Heeren smacked a bouncer up the middle and Mitch Rolls walked, Bradey Holtz then took center stage. He promptly sent a hard shot down the left-field line for a double to score Heeren with the tying run.

"We've been in this position before and we knew what it would take to get the job done," Holtz said. "I don't think anybody believed we couldn't win this game when we came up in the seventh."

Following the Holtz equalizer, Connor Langrell walked to load the bases for Harvey. He found a fastball to his liking and ripped a hard double to right scoring Rolls and Holtz. Langrell trotted home moments later when Burton hit a sacrifice fly to deep left. When Harvey came home on a double by Means, Sidney had a 7-3 lead with their closer ready to take the hill.

"We started off with the Jake hit and Mitch's walk and that really pumped up the bench with a lot of energy," said Means, who had two hits and one other drive to deep center that was tracked down by Jackson Dickerson. "(Ellis) had a tell and that helped me. When he was going to throw a curve ball he was grinding it in his hands, so I always knew when the curve was coming."

With a four-run lead, all Sidney needed now was for Heeren to do his thing. The hard-throwing closer set Chadron down 1-2-3 with a strikeout and a pair of infield ground outs.

"The plan all along was to have Lane go six innings and then have me to close," Heeren said.

On Saturday, Gering pitched Esai Hernandez who earlier in the season threw a one-hitter at Sidney. Opposing Hernandez was Burton, who went two innings and gave up a pair of runs. Burton handed the ball to Zack Means, who surrendered a run in the third and eventually was charged wit the loss after four innings of work. Heeren again pitched a scoreless final inning.

While Hernandez was again stingy, Post #17 managed to reach him for three runs in the third inning after sending nine hitters to the plate. Harvey opened the frame by walking on four pitches and was followed by a Holtz single. Langrell drove in Sidney's first run on a groundout. Holtz scored shortly afterwards on a wild pitch and Means drove home Hereen with a single to knot the game at 3-3.

"We fared much better against (Hernandez) than the last time we faced him," Witt said. "We put four runs up and put a lot of balls in play. We had a few mental breakdowns and that was really the difference."

Sidney was more patient against Hernandez than it was previously. Sidney collected 10 walks and five hits. The Sidney hits were struck by Holtz, Langrell and Hagerman with Means contributing two. Harvey and Langrell each walked twice. Post #17's fourth run came in the fourth when Langrell singled home Harvey, who doubled before him.

Sidney struggled to get any offensive momentum against Jayden Stack, who went the distance for Chadron on Sunday. Only Harvey, Heeren, Burton and Arik Doty managed a hit off Stack. Doty also reached the hard way in the second inning after being hit in the head with a fastball. A Hagerman walk and two errors accounted for Sidney's other base runners.

"We were playing well at the end of the year so I thought we would go further than we did," said Holtz, who expects to return next year. "There are so many young guys on this team that got some valuable experience. That should really help us for next year."

WEEKEND BOXSCORES

Sidney 7, Chadron 3

Sidney 110 000 5 – 7 7 3

Chadron 000 003 0 – 3 5 1

Sidney: Lane Harvey, Jake Heeren (7) and Bradey Holtz. Chadron: Colby Ellis and Jayden Stack.

2B: Jackson Dickerson (C), Cody Ray (C), Keaton Wakefield (S), Zack Means (S), Lane Harvey (S), Bradey Holtz (S).

Gering 6, Sidney 4

Gering 111 030 0 – 6 9 2

Sidney 003 100 0 – 4 5 1

Gering: Esai Hernandez, Austin Reynolds (6) and Austin Reynolds, catcher unavailable (6). Sidney: Kyle Burton, Zack Means (3), Jake Heeren (7) and Bradey Holtz.

2B: Chris Palomo (G).

Chadron 9, Sidney 0

Chadron 201 000 6 – 9 9 1

Sidney 000 000 0 – 0 4 2

Sidney: Bradey Holtz, Keaton Wakefield (6), Zack Means (7) and Arik Doty. Chadron: Jayden Stack and Jake Bargan.

No extra base hits.