The Wayne American Legion Post 43 Juniors are guaranteed a spot in the finals of the B-3 Area tournament after winning three games in two days over the weekend.
Rain in Valley moved the start of the tournament back from Friday to Saturday and tournament officials decided to condense three days worth of games into two to keep on schedule for next week's state touranment that begins Saturday in Alliance.
Wayne opened tournament play Saturday with a 5-4 win over Concordia, scoring two in the fifth to win a back-and-forth battle. The big play came in the the fifth when Wayne answered Concordia's two-run inning with two of their own, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Brodie Munter and an RBI single by Jaxson Kneifl. Parker Patefield scored the tying run on the Munter sacrifice and Drew Reinhardt came home with the go-ahead score on the Kneifl single.
Wayne had to play two games on Sunday, starting with a late-morning affair with Springfield that they won 8-5. Wayne trailed 4-3 after four innings, but took control with three in the fifth and added two more in the sixth to advance. Mason Heikes had an RBI double that scored Calvin Ankeny to tie the game, and an RBI single by Zander Liston scored Garrett Anderson with the go-ahead run, with another run coming home on an error. RBI singles by Alex Rodriguez and Heikes in the sixth put the game out of reach.
Sunday night, Wayne edged Arlington 7-6 to secure a spot in the championship game, using a five-run fifth inning to come back from a 4-1 deficit. Ankeny and Carter Wiese both brought home runs when they were hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Bases-loaded walks to Jamison Meyer and Anderson also brought in runs, and Heikes' infield single scored another run in the big inning.
Wayne is the only team of the four remaining without a loss. They play Waverly Monday at 7:30 p.m. With a win, the Arlington-Springfield survivor would need to win two on Tuesday. If Wayne loses to Waverly, Waverly would play the Arlington-Springfield winner Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., with Wayne facing the winner of that game for the championship.
Complete updates of this weekend's games will be in the next edition of The Wayne Herald.
