Wayne and West Point were the last two teams standing in the Ralph Bishop League on Saturday, and the Wayne American Legion Juniors and Seniors both came away with wins to sweep the 52nd annual league championship Saturday at Eaton Field in Wakefield.
The Wayne Juniors jumped on West Point early and rode the pitching of Josh Lutt and Jacob Kneifl to a 7-3 win in the Juniors final late Saturday afternoon. In the Seniors game, Wayne broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth and got out of a bases-loaded jam by leaving the tying run at third in a 7-6 win over West Point.
In the Juniors game, Wayne struck for three runs in the first when Kneifl scored on an error, Reid Korth drove in a run with a groundout and Lutt singled to right for a 3-0 lead. Wayne doubled their advantage in the third, thanks to a two-run double by Lutt and a groundout by Tyler Gilliland.
West Point put up three runs in the bottom of the third, but Wayne added an insurance run in the seventh when Blake Bartos singled Gunnar Jorgensen home after he reached base on a dropped third strike.
Lutt threw 4 1/3 innings to get the win for the 14-11 Juniors, while Kneifl struck out six in 2 2/3 innings of relief work. Offensively, Lutt and Trevor DeBoer each had two hits and Lutt had three RBI’s.
In the Seniors game, Wayne built a 4-0 lead before West Point took advantage of two errors in the third and an RBI single in the fifth to tie the game at 4-4.
Wayne broke the tie in the sixth when Caden Korth tripled and scored on a wild pickoff attempt. Another error brought home Tyler Lutt and Tucker Nichols followed on an RBI single by Justin Dean.
West Point loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh and used a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch to score two, but Payten Gamble got Austin Streeter to ground out to Nichols at second for the final out to give Wayne (12-7) the championship.
Zane Jackson was 3-for-4 with two runs scored to lead Wayne’s 13-hit attack. Korth was 3-for-3 and Dean and Ben Klein each had two hits. Gamble tripled and Brennen O’Reilly and Adam Bentjen both had hits. Gamble got the win in relief of Bentjen.
The Juniors close the regular season at home Wednesday with a 7 p.m. game against South Sioux City, then begin Area tournament play Friday at O’Neill. The Seniors are home Thursday for a 5 p.m. doubleheader with Omaha Central.
