Legion juniors go 3-1 at Bandit Junior Bash

The Imperial Legion juniors ran their record to 5-2 with a hectic week of games.
Bandit Junior Bash
The juniors traveled to Overton for its Bandit Junior Bash Saturday and Sunday.
Joining the hosts and Imperial were Lexington, Hershland, Alma andWood River.
Imperial Head Coach Bruce Peterson said it was more like a round robin than a bracketed tournament and no places were given.
    “It was more of a centralized hub to get several games played, games which will go toward district seeding later,” Peterson said.
    “It was an opportunity for us to see different teams like Wood River and Overton that aren’t in our regular league,” he added.
The Horns’ opened the tournament against Lexington Saturday evening.
Imperial lost the game 10-18.
Peterson said his team didn’t play “Imperial baseball” in the loss.
    “We made too many mistakes and beat ourselves, Lexington didn’t beat us. Those games don’t happen often, but when they do, we learn from them, put them behind us and get better,” Peterson said.
    Four walks, three singles and a double plated 10 runs for Lexington to start the game.
    The Horns’ took advantage of two errors to advance runners into scoring position. A double by Jaret Peterson scored one and Mason Wallin scored on an error. Peterson added a third run in the inning.
    Holding Lex scoreless in the second, the juniors nibbled away at the lead in the second inning with three runs. Peterson and Carter Leibbrandt each hit doubles to help the Horns’ cause.
    Lexington broke loose for six runs in the top of the third and doused Imperial’s bases-loaded threat in the bottom of the inning.
    The Horns’ deficit increased by two runs in the top of the final inning.
    Lexington left the door open, issuing three walks and hitting a batter. Imperial scored four runs, but hit three ground balls for outs to end the game.
    Colin O’Neil and Cooper Dillan pitched for the Horns, walking eight and striking out four.
With Lexington behind them, Peterson said the team played good baseball the rest of the weekend as last year’s players hit their strides and first-year players gained experience.
Imperial followed up the game with a matchup against Overton and the Horns took out their frustrations on the hosts.
Imperial out hit Overton 11-2 and played error free ball in the 16-1 win.
Wallin hit two doubles and a triple in the game.
Peterson drove in four runs. Dillan and C. O’Neil each had three RBIs.
Morel Jurado walked two and struck out three.
Sunday, Imperial had another strong offensive showing against Wood River in the early afternoon.
Despite being shut out in the first inning, Imperial grabbed a 3-1 lead after two.
The Horns steadily increased their lead, scoring two in the third inning, three in the fourth and two in the fifth, all the while holding Wood River scoreless.
Jurado had a double and C. O’Neil a triple as part of Imperial’s eight hits.
Peterson pitched a complete game, allowing three hits, no walks and nine strikeouts.
The juniors wrapped up their tournament with a rematch with Overton after Cozad dropped out of the tournament.
    “Overton has a lot of young players and so do we so it was good to mix up both lineups some and get another game in,” Peterson said.
Overton added three new players to its lineup and gave Imperial all it wanted.
Cameron Lempke, the game’s opening batter, was awarded first after being hit be a pitch, then came round to score for the Horns.
After holding Overton scoreless, then being held scoreless themselves despite having the bases loaded, Imperial found itself trailing after a six-run second inning by Overton.
Neither team could score in the third inning, but both found a groove in the fourth.
Overton pitchers struggled in the top half of the inning, issuing two walks, a wild pitch and a passed ball.
Malachi Christensen singled to bring in a run. Thomas Reeves stole home and Christensen scored on a passed ball. Rallying with two outs, Peterson was hit by a pitch and Tyler O’Neil walked. Both went on to score and tie the game at six.
The tie didn’t last long. Overton scored four runs in the inning thanks to four consecutive hits.
Overton helped the Horns rally, putting back-to-back batters, Reeves and Christensen, on base when they were hit by pitches. Though the pair scored, Tristan Jablonski was also hit by a pitch, but left stranded.
Trailing 8-10, Imperial kept itself in the game by sitting down all three batters it faced in the fifth inning.
With the game on the line, Wallin and Reeves led off the sixth inning with singles. A stolen base by Wallin and defensive interference as Reeves was running to second kept the runners in scoring position. Wallin scored on an error and Reeves crossed home plate when Dillan was hit by a pitch.
Heading back to the top of the order, Lempke walked and advanced when Leibbrandt was hit by a pitch. Dillan and Lempke scored on a Peterson single to give Imperial a 12-10 lead.
Peterson pitched the final two innings for Imperial, holding Overton scoreless.
Overton grounded out to lead off the sixth inning and Peterson recorded the second out with a strikeout. A single and a walk set up Overton with base runners, but Peterson shut down the threat with another strikeout.
T. O’Neil, Lempke and Peterson combined to give up eight hits, one walk and eight strikeouts, including four by Peterson on eight batters faced.
Imperial hit nine singles in the game for eight RBIs.
    “It’s just nice to get four games all in one location, and save some drive time,” Peterson said, adding, it was also the first chance for some of these players to do an overnight stay for baseball, which will be good preparation for district competition later.
Beat Hershland
The juniors and seniors put up double-digit runs in wins over Hershland in Imperial June 1.
The juniors opened the evening with an 11-4 win.
Tristan Hite was starting pitcher for the Horns. In three innings of work, Hite struck out seven and walked one.
Offensively, Hite and Wallin scored first-inning runs after singles to start the inning.
The second inning started with a walk by Jurado, single by Hite and walk by Wallin. The three scored in the inning.
Jurado’s second walk in the third inning allowed him to score the inning’s only run.
Nolan Foster took over pitching duties for the Horns in the fourth inning with Imperial holding a 6-0 lead.
Foster faced four batters. After giving up a walk to open the inning, Foster sat down the next three batters he faced.
Imperial followed up his effort by plating three runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Dillan scored on a double by C. O’Neil, then Carson Terryberry and Jurado, who walked for the third time in the game, took advantage of defensive interference and an error to cross home plate.
Dillan was on the mound for the Horns in the fifth inning. After a strike out and ground out, Hershland rallied to score four runs before a strike out by Dillan ended the top half of the inning.
With a 9-4 lead, Imperial added two runs in the fifth when Reeves and George Colton scored.
Dillan closed out the game with back-to-back scoreless innings and Imperial went three up and three down in the bottom of the sixth.
Seventeen players took to the field for Imperial.
Imperial out hit Hershland 10-2. Dillan and C. O’Neil each went 2-3, including doubles for each.
The Horns stranded nine in the win. Hershland left six on the bases. Imperial stole eight bases.
Up next
The juniors joined the senior team in a double header at Hershland Tuesday, then at Gothenburg Friday and Holdrege Saturday.
Both squads will be at home Sunday to take on Cozad.