Seniors Struggle in District Tourney

Sidney's American Legion Post 17 Senior baseball team traveled to Ogallala for the B7 Area Tournament this weekend, and lost two games and were eliminated from the tournament. Sidney opened Friday afternoon against the Gering Platte Valley companies Senior team, and were shut out and no-hit by Gering's Carter Reisig and Jackson Howard on the mound.

Reisig started the game and struck out the first two batters he faced, then hit Reid Fiscus to give Sidney a runner on first, but Reisig recovered and got Micah Schneider to fly out to centerfield to end the top off the first inning. Sawyer Dickman started on the mound for Sidney, and after inducing a ground out to the first batter, gave up a single to Carter Reisig.

Dalton Wiese then hit grounder to shortstop Micah Schneider, who made a sure handed play, slinging the ball over to second baseman Blaine Russell for the force out and then he fired the ball to first base to get Wiese and complete the double play to end the inning. Reisig then retired the side in order in the top of the second, and Gering was able to break through for a run when Gering's Mason Gaudreault drove home a run with a two-out single.

Sidney again went down in order in the top of the third inning, and Gering took advantage of two walks in their half of the third when Dalton Wiese hit a hard single to right field, plating two runs.

Sidney looked to be in trouble with two runners on base, but Dickman induced another double play on a grounder, with Schneider firing over to Reid Fiscus to first base for an out, followed by Fiscus throwing out Gering's Tyler Garret trying to advance to second to complete the double play and get Sidney out of the inning.

Sidney was able to get a runner aboard on an error in the top of the fourth inning, but again Reisig was able to get out of the inning with no damage. Sidney was unable to break through against Reisig, and Gering plated one more run in the fifth after Dickman walked the bases loaded and was relieved by Schneider, who then hit the first batter he faced, forcing home a run. Gaudreault then grounded into a fielder's choice for the third out. The game ended in a 4-to-0 loss for the Seniors, with no hits and only a few scattered baserunners via hit by pitch and errors. Dickman pitched 4.2 innings, giving up four runs on four hits and seven walks. He struck out two batters in the loss. Schneider went 1.1 innings and struck out one batter.

Sidney next faced Chadron on Saturday afternoon, and the Seniors jumped on Chadron starter Noah Brown early in the first inning. After walking the bases loaded with one out to start the game, Brown walked Zech Roggasch to force home a run, and Brown was then relieved by Trey Hendrickson after recording only one out. Rhyder Bane then hit a single past third base to drive in another run. Patrick McCartney then singled to left field to drive home a third run for Sidney.

Hendrickson was then able to induce two fly outs to get out of the inning with Sidney up 3-to-0. But the Seniors could not hold back the Chadron offense, as starter Micah Schneider was able to strike out the first batter he faced, but then gave up a walk then a double to Broc Berry to bring home the first Chadron run. An error on a ground ball by shortstop Austin Wolfe brought home a second run, and a passed ball scored scored a third run before Schneider could get the final out of the inning, tying the score at 3-to-3 going into the second inning.

Reid Fiscus was able to reach base in the second inning when he was hit by a pitch, but the Sidney Seniors could not bring him home. Schneider then got the first out in the bottom of the second, but then had problems with his control, walking a batter and hitting two more to load the bases. Chadron then scored a run on a wild pitch, and Schneider struck out Quinn Bailey for the second out. But the inning then blew up on Sidney, with Schneider walking the next two batters followed by errors in the field, plating five more runs and giving Chadron a 9-to-3 lead after two innings.

Sidney then managed a single in the top of the third, but was unable to score the run, and Schneider worked around two walks and a single in the bottom of the third to escape without any more damage. Connor Hurt then led off the top of the fourth with a double, followed by two quick outs by Sidney. Two batters were hit by pitches followed by a single by Roggasch and a double by Bayne to score three runs and narrow the Chadron lead to 9-to-6. Schneider then retired the side in order to end the fourth inning. Sidney again stranded a runner in their half of the fifth, and then Schneider got the first out of the bottom of the fifth with a ground out. He was then replaced by Blaine Russell, and Russell proceeded to induce a fly out and a ground out to get out of the inning. Fiscus drew a walk to start the top of the sixth inning, but again Sidney could not score the baserunner.

Chadron started the bottom of the sixth with two straight singles, then scored three more runs capitalizing on two hit batters, a walk and an error to move the score to 12-to-6. After Russell singled to get on base with one out, Connor Hurt grounded into a double play to end the inning, and the game, in a 12-to-6 loss for the Seniors, and Sidney was eliminated from the tournament.

Schneider took the loss, going 4.1 innings and giving up five earned runs on two hits and six walks. Schneider struck out seven in the loss. Russell pitched 1.2 innings, giving up three unearned runs on two hits with one walk.