Sidney pounds out 14 hits in road win

It looks as though the Sidney American Legion seniors have short memories.

Less than 24 hours after being no hit by Buckley at Legion Field on Wednesday, Post 17 swung their bats with a vengeance in Torrington, exploding for 14 hits in a 15-14 win over the Torrington Tigers at Dan Bullock Stadium.

Travis Garska (2-0) earned the win after coming on in relief of Austin Pile, who left with the game tied after six. Pile was charged with 10 runs, only five of which were earned.

Though plagued by defensive lapses, Sidney also benefitted from Torrington's unsteady defense. Sidney committed nine errors while the Tigers contributed 11.

But most impressive for Post 17 was its quick rebound from the Buckley game.

Scott Phillips led the hit parade with three hits, three RBI and three runs scored. Meanwhile Bradey Holtz, Travis Garska and Jason Hagerman each added two knocks apiece.

Leadoff hitter Holtz stole four bases, walked three times and stamped on the plate four times. A potential fifth stolen base for Holtz was ruled to be defensive indifference.

All the Sidney starters had at least one hit.

"It's finally coming around," said Holtz. "I feel like I'm seeing the ball so much better now than I did at the beginning of the year."

Sidney scored in every inning but the second and fourth. Holtz opened the floodgates in his first at bat after drawing a walk, stealing second and eventually crossing on a Torrington error.

But as they did on several occasions, the Tigers answered Sidney scores with some of their own.

In the third inning Sidney took a 4-2 lead powered by a long two-RBI double by Phillips. After the three-run inning, Torrington charged right back in the bottom of the frame to score three of their own to take a one-run lead.

The pattern was repeated in the sixth inning after Sidney scored five runs. Mitch Rolls started the rally with a sharply struck one-out single to left. He was quickly brought home when Holtz tripled to deep center.

Later in the inning Garska, Phillips and Keaton Wakefield came home with the help of some sloppy fielding by Torrington.

Sidney had taken a 10-5 lead. But the prosperity didn't last long, as the Tigers matched Sidney's five in the bottom half.

After six innings, Pile was removed in favor of Garska, who took the hill for the final three innings.

As for the fielding miscues that, at times, hampered the efforts of the Sidney hurlers, both understood its part of the learning curve for a team still finding its footing.

"Our outfield is really young," said the veteran Pile. "Once the season gets started we don't get as much time to practice. It's going to get better as the season goes along."

With the longer nine inning game, Garska recognized the team would likely need some relief help in the latter innings. He had just come off an outstanding complete-game pitching effort against Hershey just two days earlier.

"I didn't want to push A.P. out but I told the coaches if they wanted someone for the later innings I would be ready," said Garska.

At the conclusion of the sixth inning Pile had thrown in the neighborhood of 100 pitches, prompting the change.

Though Torrington tied the matter at 10 in the home sixth, the Sidney offense came right back at them in the seventh. Hagerman opened the frame by ripping a double and eventually scoring the first of three runs. After Hagerman's blast, Rolls reached on an error, Holtz walked and Garska and Pile singled.

Rolls and Holtz followed Hagerman across the plate to give Post 17 a 13-10 lead.

With single runs in the eighth and ninth innings Sidney established a five-run lead going into the home ninth. Sloppy fielding aided the eighth inning run while Wakefield knocked in Sidney's 15th tally.

Though he opened his three-inning stint with a pair of 1-2-3 innings, Garska encountered some adversity in the ninth. He gave up his only two hits in the inning while two Post 17 errors aided the Tigers cause.

The damage was limited when Garska caught the games final batter looking at strike three.

Since Torrington did not have enough players to field a juniors team, the originally scheduled double header was reduced to one nine inning contest between the seniors.

Garska is expected to start again on Sunday when Sidney travels to McCook. Before the Sunday contest, however, Post 17 will take on a pair of opponents at Shelton in a seniors triangular on Saturday.

Sidney will meet Seward at 2:30 p.m. CDT and Shelton at 5.

Linescore

Sidney 103 015 311 - 15

Torrington 113 005 004 - 14

WP: Travis Garska

Doubles

Scott Phillips, Jason Hagerman

Triples

Bradey Holtz

RBI

Scott Phillips 3, Bradey Holtz, Travis Garska, Keaton Wakefield, Mitch Rolls

Stolen Bases

Bradey Holtz 4, Travis Garska, Keaton Wakefield, Jason Hagerman

Runs Scored

Bradey Holtz 4, Scott Phillips 3, Austin Pile 2, Travis Garska, Keaton Wakefield, Jason Hagerman 2, Mitch Rolls 2