The Wayne American Legion Juniors reached the championship of the Class B, Area 5 tournament in O’Neill with a pair of wins over the weekend.
On Friday, the Juniors posted a 2-0 shutout of Columbus Lakeview, breaking a scoreless tie with two runs in the sixth inning as four pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout.
Wayne got both of their runs in the top of the sixth after Reid Korth and Josh Lutt led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Blake Bartos moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt, and Tyler Gilliland brought home Lutt and Tyrus Eischeid, who entered as a courtesy runner for Korth, with the game’s only runs.
Wayne got out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and overcame two fielding errors in the seventh to hang on for the win and advance to Saturday’s winners’ bracket final.
Gilliland had two of Wayne’s seven hits in the game. Trevor DeBoer doubled and Hagan Miller, Gunnar Jorgensen, Korth and Lutt added hits. Gilliland got the win in relief, while Jacob Kneifl picked up the save.
Wayne advanced to Monday’s championship game with a 4-1 win over O’Neill, putting up a pair of insurance runs late after scoring early in the game.
Korth and Jorgensen got Wayne on the board in the first with back-to-back RBI singles, scoring Kneifl and DeBoer. O'Neill cut the deficit in half with a run in the fourth, but Wayne scored two key runs in the sixth, as Kneifl brought Gilliland home with a sacrifice fly and DeBoer singled Miller for the final run.
DeBoer threw a complete-game four-hitter, striking out five. DeBoer and Korth each had two hits to lead a 10-hit attack, while Miller, Kneifl, Jorgensen, Lutt, Gilliland and Kaleb Anderson each had singles.
The 16-11 Juniors will face Lakeview in a 5 p.m. matchup, with a second game to be held 30 minutes after the first game if needed. The winner advances to next week’s state tournament in Nebraska City.
