End of regular season near for Legion Juniors; three games past week

Six regular season games remain on the Imperial Junior Legion schedule. The team moved to 9-5 after three games last week.
The Horns opened their weekend with a 9-3 win at Lexington Friday.
Singles by Camron Lempke and Jaret Peterson set the players up to score in the first inning.
Holding Lexington scoreless  in their opening at-bat, Imperial added three more runs in the top of the second inning. Colin O’Neil started the inning off with a single and would score. Thomas Reeves walked, then scored on a triple by Cooper Dillan. Dillan crossed home plate on a balk.
A double and single by Lexington earned them a run to make the score 5-1 at the end of the second.
Both teams stranded a runner in the third inning, but Reeves walked for Imperial and scored on a passed ball for the fourth inning’s only run.
Lexington pitchers struggled in the fifth inning, hitting lead off batter Morel Jurado, walking Reeves and moving the pair around to score with wild pitches.
Lexington hit two singles in the bottom of the fifth inning, but a strike-out and two fielder’s choices ended the threat.
Lexington cut into Imperial’s lead in the sixth, holding the Horns scoreless before scoring two runs themselves.
Tyler O’Neil led off the seventh with a double and came around to score for Imperial.
The Horns sat down all three Lexington batters they faced in the final inning of the 9-3 win.
Peterson and Jurado allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out six.
Imperial’s weekend wrapped up with back-to-back home losses.
The Horns lost 3-5 to Gothenburg Saturday.
After giving up a first inning run, Imperial tied the score at one in the bottom of the second when Jurado singled, the Horns’ only hit of the game, and later scored thanks to a wild pitch.
Gothenburg broke loose for four runs in the top of the third to take control of the game. The Melons had four singles and two walks in the inning, while Imperial left the bases loaded.
Neither team could score in the next three innings, but the Horns tried to rally from their 1-5 deficit in the seventh.
Tristan Jablonski walked and Dillan was hit by a pitch to set the Horns up with base runners. Passed balls and a ground-out scored Jablonski. Dillan would score on a wild pitch. Back-to-back walks set Imperial up with runners on first and second, before a fly out finished the game.
C. O’Neil and Dillan combined to give up 10 hits, six walks and six strikeouts.
The juniors’ week ended with a 4-10 loss to Broken Bow Sunday.
Broken Bow took advantage of a two singles and a walk in the first inning to jump out to a two-run lead.
The Horns loaded the bases in their half of an inning, but only put one run on the board.
Three strikeouts kept Broken Bow scoreless in the second inning. Imperial took the lead with runs by Tristan Hite and Tysen Lempke after each singled to reach base.
Imperial loaded the bases in the third inning but wasn’t able to score.
Broken Bow tied the game at three in the fourth inning and both teams went scoreless in the fifth.
Horns’ errors and walks let Broken Bow score seven runs in the sixth inning.
Singles in the sixth by T. Lempke, C. Lempke, Peterson and Wallin, plus Dillan being hit by a pitch, brought T. Lempke home. Despite the bases being loaded, Imperial was unable to score any more runs.
Imperial out hit Broken Bow  10-8, but committed five errors.
Hite and Jurado walked seven and struck out eight.
Up next for juniors
Four junior/senior doubleheaders remain on the juniors’ schedule.
Imperial traveled to Ogallala Tuesday.
Saturday the Horns will be at Curtis/Maywood.
Monday they will make the trip to Broken Bow and Tuesday Ogallala will be in Imperial.
The Mid-Nebraska League junior league championship will be July 1 at a west site to be determined.
On July 6, Overton will be in town for a juniors-only doubleheader.
Districts begin July 9.
JV season ends
Imperial’s JV squad finished the season 4-3.
The Horns lost to Sidney 3-11 June 15. Imperial led 1-0 after the first, but a big fourth inning by Sidney made the difference. Sidney scored seven runs in the top of the fourth inning. Imperial scored two in the bottom half to trail 3-7.
Sidney tacked on four more runs in the fifth to end the game.
Imperial outhit Sidney 8-5, but had three errors. Reeves went 3-3 at the plate.
C. Lempke, Nolan Foster and Jablonski walked eight and struck out nine.
The Horns split a double header with Ogallala Wednesday.
Imperial lost the first game 2-4. The Horns took the lead 1-0 at the end of the first inning.
After adding a run in the top of the third, Imperial gave up four runs in the bottom of the inning.
Neither team scored in the remainder of the game.
Jablonski and Gavin Wisnieski allowed two hits, seven walks and six strikeouts in the game.
Imperial took advantage of five Ogallala errors to win the second game, 13-10.
The Horns jumped out to a 3-1 at the end of the first inning. Ogallala narrowed the margin to one in the bottom of the third inning.
Both teams scored four runs in the fourth.
Imperial started off the fifth inning with six runs. Westyn Mendenhall, Wallin and C. Lempke singled to start the inning. After a Jablonski walk, Wisnieski singled. Carson Terryberry also singled in the inning, bringing in his sixth RBI in the game.
T. O’Neil and Dillan pitched for the Horns. They combined to walk 11 and strike out eight.