Antlers, Warriors and Knights Claim Conference Tournament Titles

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Westside players celebrate after receiving the Metro Tournament Championship plaque on Saturday.  The Warriors defeated Papillion LaVista South 6-2 to repeat as Metro Champs.  More Game Photos.

Antlers, Warriors and Knights Claim Conference Tournament Titles

Sunday, April 19, 2009

In a weekend packed with conference tournament action, Elkhorn won the first-ever Eastern Midlands Conference Tournament with a furious comeback, Westside repeated as the Metro Tournament Champions and Lincoln Southeast avenged an early season loss to crosstown rival Southwest.  And, most importantly, the weather was just good enough to allow the tournaments to be completed on schedule.  Here's a brief rundown of the tournament highlights:

EMC Tournament

In the inaugural EMC tournament, the anticipated showdown between Nebraska City's Logan Ehlers and the Elkhorn lineup in the Championship was nixed by the Gretna Dragons who upset the #3 Pioneers, 5-2, in Thursday's semifinals.  The #8 Dragons (6-7) defeated Waverly 8-4 in the opening round at 2:00 on Thursday, and then came back at 5:00 and knocked off Nebraska City to advance to the Championship.  Jared Gottberg pitched a complete game and helped himself with a two-run double.  Kevin Anderson drove in two runs with a triple.  

As the #1 seed, Elkhorn had a first-round bye and was then paired with Blair, a 10-4 opening round winner over Norris earlier in the day.  Senior righthander Josh Bullock was very sharp, allowing only three hits in six innings while striking out eleven in the 6-0 win over the Bears.   

In the Championship, the top-ranked team in Class B was trailing Gretna 9-1 after three innings.  The Antlers rallied for three runs in the fourth, and then Jake Pojar (poy-er) hit a pinch-hit, bases-loaded triple in the fifth to bring Elkhorn back within one.  The Antlers put up two more runs in the fifth and held on for the 11-9 win to improve to 12-4 on the season.  Tanner Johnson allowed only one in 1 2/3 innings to earn his second win of the season. 

The anticipated contest between Elkhorn and Nebraska City will take place as a regularly scheduled conference game on Tuesday at 5:00 at Nebraska City. 

| Final EMC Bracket |

HAC Tournament

Although the record will show that Lincoln Southeast won the 2009 HAC Tournament, the #7 seeded Lincoln High Links had to come away from the event feeling pretty good about themselves, too.  The Links (5-11) dropped a close opening round game to Grand Island on Thursday, 8-7, then beat Northeast 10-0 in a loser's bracket game before dropping another one-run game to Lincoln East, 9-8, on a walkoff home run by East's Tony Suarez in the fifth place game.  It was the Links' fifth one-run loss of the season. 

Following a first-round 4-2 win over Lincoln East, host team North Star advanced to play #1 seed Southwest, coming off a first-round bye, in the semifinals.  In a hard-fought game, the Silver Hawks came away with a 4-3 win that put them into the Championship Game. 

In the other bracket, Grand Island advanced to the semifinal where the defending Class A State Champs were paired with Southeast, a 2-0 first-round winner over Northeast.  The Knights pounded out fourteen hits in the 11-3 win, pulling away with seven runs in the second inning.  Winning pitcher Josh Scheffert and sophomore standout David Sutton were both three-for-four.  Scheffert had two RBI's and scored two runs, and Sutton had two RBI's on a single, a double and a triple. Jaydee Jurgensen and freshman Ryan MacDonald were both two-for-four.  The Islanders did get to Scheffert for eight hits in six innings despite striking out eleven times with Derek Papstein going 3-for-4. 

In the Championship game, junior lefthander Jaydee Jurgensen again came up big, earning the win on the mound, scattering six hits while striking out four in five innings.  The five-hole hitter also helped himself at the plate, going three-for-four and driving in the first three runs as the Knights jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings.  The Silver Hawks responded with a run in the fourth on a RBI single by Dain Sudik that scored Vince Flynn and scored a run in the seventh on an error after the bases were loaded by two hit batsmen and catcher's interference.  Jordan Kirk recorded six strikeouts in the last two innings to earn the save.  The championship win avenges a 2-1 loss to the Silver Hawks on April 1.

| Final HAC Bracket |

Metro Tournament

The eight first-round games in the Metro resulted in a number of blowouts as top-seeded teams were paired against lower-seeded teams.  The big opening round surprise was #5 seed Millard South falling to #12 seed Central, 11-9.  The Eagles' senior catcher, Michael Wegner, drove in the two game winning runs with a base hit in the top of the seventh.  The other opening round highlight was a two-home run, seven RBI performance by Bryan's Aaron Beil in the Bear's 9-1 win over Bellevue East. 

The four quarterfinals games were all decided by ten or more runs as the four losing teams were outscored by a total of forty-four to three.  By contrast the two semifinals were extremely hard-fought, extra-inning affairs.  Westside prevailed over Millard West, 3-2, despite trailing 2-1 with two outs in the eighth. A swinging third strike for what would have been a game-ending strikeout for the Wildcat's relief pitcher, Zach Kallman, got away from the catcher, allowing the tying run to score.   Then, a throwing error allowed the winning run to cross the plate for a wild and rather stunning turn of events.  Chris Williams earned the win for the Warriors to raise his season record to 6-0.  Tyler Niederklein was in line for the win for the Wildcats but ended up with a "no decision." 

In Friday night's other semifinal, Papillion LaVista South prevailed over Prep 4-3 in nine innings.  Papio South began the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first, then fell behind 2-1 when Creighton Prep scored two in the top of the third on a base hit by Joey Kankovsky and back-to-back doubles by starting pitcher Ryan Briggs and Mike Pritchard .  The Titans tied it up with a run in the bottom of the third, and put up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fourth.  After a scoreless fifth, Briggs tied it back up on a solo homer in the top of the 6th.    The game remained tied until the bottom of the 9th when Brian Donohoe scored the winning run on a Max Huerter wild pitch.  Josh Homme earned the win in relief of starter Eli Nelson, who scattered six hits over six innings.  Homme retired nine straight batters in the 7th, 8th and 9th for his third win.  Deric Barber doubled for the Titans.   Briggs went six innings for Prep, striking out six.

A nice crowd was on hand for Saturday's Championship Game at Westside, though probably a few less than the "paid attendance of 2,083 ..... two-oh-eight-three" announced in his native Brooklynese by colorful PA announcer Barry Silverstein, an itinerant vocal talent on loan from Prep during the reconstruction of the Junior Jays' home ballpark.

Westside senior lefthander Peter Thomas kept the Papillion LaVista South hitters off-balance all afternoon with a nice change-up, scattering six hits and walking only one in a complete game performance.  The Titans started the scoring with a Deric Barber sacrifice fly that scored Steven Booher in the second.  The Warriors answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning on an Alec Williams double that scored Dylan Flott, and a Jory Goldstrom base hit that scored Williams.  The Warriors extended their lead with three runs in the bottom of the third on a two-run double by Kyle Hartman and a base hit by Flott.   

The Titans' Brian Donohoe lead off the fourth by beating out an infield hit, and Josh Homme, running for the catcher Donohoe, then moved up to second on a wild pitch.  An infield hit by Eli Nelson put runners on the corners for the Titans before an errant pick off attempt to first base allowed Homme to score.   The Titans returned the favor in the bottom of the inning when relief pitcher Barber's attempt to pick off Dan Dunn at first went to the fence, allowing Dunn to advance to third.  Dunn came home on a wild pitch.  Barber settled down to throw very well in relief of starter Ethan Schroeder who took the loss.  The Titans' committed an uncharacteristic three errors in the 6-2 loss. 

The tournament championship is the second in two weeks for the #1 ranked Warriors (18-1) who won the Millard West Wildcat Invitational last week.  It also gives the Warriors back-to-back Metro Tournament championships.

| Final Metro Bracket |