The Plainview Post 148 Junior Legion baseball team saw its season come to an end at the Class C Area 2 Junior Tournament held in Dodge beginning on Friday, July 12. After the squad earned the three seed in the area tournament with a regular-season record of 7-8, they were matched up to face off against the home team, Wisner-Pilger-Beemer-Dodge (WPBD) in the first round on Friday, July 12 at 7:00 p.m.
However, in their most recent matchup, the Plainview boys took on the number one-seeded Pender on Saturday, July 13 in what ended up being the Pirates final game of the season. In a tight, defensive-heavy matchup, the Pirates got out to a great start against the squad that entered the tournament as heavy favorites to win it all. After neither team found a way to score through the first three and a half innings, Plainview finally broke the ice in the bottom of the fourth.
With two runners on and two outs, Caden Ickler ripped a double to center field to score two runs and give the Pirates a 2-0 lead going into the top of the fifth.
Unfortunately, the Pirates lead didn’t last long. In the top of the fifth, Pender used a suicide squeeze and a double to tie things up and immediately take away any momentum Plainview had gained from their last at bats.
After Pender was able to tie the game, Plainview couldn’t get anything going offensively. In the bottom of the fifth, the Pirates went 1-2-3 while Pender continued to fight and claw to retake the lead.
In the top of the sixth, Pender was able to finally grab the lead with a single to right field to make the score 3-2. While the game was still close, Plainview wasn’t able to find a way to get the lead back. After the Pirates went 1-2-3 again in the bottom of the sixth, Pender scored again to make it 4-2 in the top of the seventh, which is what the final score read.
This loss put an end to Plainview’s 2024 season. Wyatt Schroth was the leader for Plainview in their final game of 2024 with a tremendous performance on defense. Schroth finished the contest having given up just one earned run on six hits and three strikeouts. Prior to their season-ending loss to Pender, the Pirates took on WPBD to kick off their 2024 postseason on Friday, July 12.
In their postseason opener, the Pirates got the opportunity to be the home team against the lower-seeded WPBD, who came ready to play. In the top of the first, WPBD managed to break the scoring ice right away with a sacrifice fly to center field to give themselves a 1-0 lead.
Plainview came ready to play, however, and immediately responded in the bottom half of the inning two runs of their own on a single by Chase Thomas followed by a fielder’s-choice off a grounder by Ickler. By the time the first inning was over, it seemed that whoever had the hottest bat was going to walk away victorious. Unfortunately for Plainview, WPBD’s bats refused to cool down.
WPBD was able to respond in the top half of the second withtwo runs of their own followed by another run in the third inning to retake the lead by a score of 4-2. While the deficit was not insurmountable, the Pirates couldn’t get anything going offensively to allow them to retake the lead. Unfortunately, in the top of the fifth inning, the Pirates time to make a comeback had run out.
After their first batter of the inning was retired on a pop out, the next eight WPBD batters managed to get on base. By the time the Pirates got the second and third outs, WPBD had built up a 10-2 lead, and only needed three more outs to end the game early.
Unfortunately, after Kohen Lingenfelter was able to reach first safely to lead off the bottom of the fifth, WPBD was able to get out of the jam and win by run-rule to send the Pirates to the loser’s bracket, where they would eventually go on to fall to Pender. With their two losses in the area tournament, the Pirates juniors squad ended its season with a final record of 7-10.
