The Wayne American Legion Juniors ran out of gas on the mound after an extra-inning thriller, finishing the Max Greve Wood Bat Tournament with a 1-2 record.
In their first game Saturday, Wayne batted around in the third inning and all nine batters scored at least once to help Wayne to a 17-4 win over Wisner.
Wayne trailed 3-1 in the third inning, but the first 12 batters reached base and all came home to score to turn the deficit into a blowout win.
Wayne had seven walks, a hit bater and four singles in the big inning. Tyler Gilliland, Brock Hopkins and Blake Bartos had consecutive hits in the inning, and Trevor DeBoer also had a single in the inning.
Hopkins had two of Wayne’s eight hits in the win. Kneifl had a bases-clearing double and DeBoer, Gilliland and Tyrus Eischeid each had two hits. Drew Buck was the winning pitcher, scattering two hits and striking out two in 3 1/3 innings.
The Wayne Juniors went extra innings in their second game of the day, but Lennox (S.D.) scored a pair of runs in the top of the 10th and made that stand up in a 5-3 win.
Wayne trailed 2-0 in the third when they came back to tie the game on a two-run single by Kneifl. Wayne trailed 3-2 in the seventh before tying the game on a DeBoer single that scored Josh Lutt. Wayne had the bases loaded with a chance to win in regulation, but Lennox got out of the jam to force extra innings.
Wayne had chances to score in the eight and 10th innings, but left runners stranded in both innings as the visitors came away with the win.
Bartos had two of Wayne’s six hits and Kneifl had two RBI’s. Lutt pitched seven innings of six-hit ball with five strikeouts in a no decision. Sherman was credited with the loss.
In their final game of the tournament, Wayne and Hartington hooked up a wild extra-inning affair. Wayne came back to force extra innings and scored in the ninth, but Hartington came back with two in the bottom of the inning to come away with the 10-9 win.
An RBI double by Kneifl and an RBI single by DeBoer keyed a three-run first inning for Wayne, but Hartington scored four in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-3 lead.
Wayne retook the lead in the second when Bartos scored on a single by Lutt and Hopkins scored on a Kneifl sacrifice fly, then added a run in the third Reid Korth scored on an error.
Hartington scored four in the bottom of the third to reclaim the lead at 8-6, but Wayne tied the game in the sixth with a pair of runs, as Hagan Miller scored on an error and Kneifl scored on a Korth sacrifice fly.
In the ninth, Wayne scored when Bartos came home on Eischeid’s sacrifice fly, but Hartington put up two in the bottom of the ninth to come away with the win.
Lutt, Miller and Korth each had two hits in the losing effort for the 9-7 Juniors. Bartos was credited with the loss.
