Horns’ Legion season off to a hectic start

    The Imperial Legion teams jumped into their seasons with both feet last week. The seniors and juniors had four games scheduled over a five-day period beginning May 25.
    The Horns traveled to Gothenburg to start their season. The juniors took a 9-0 win while the seniors fell 6-9.
    The Melons’ seniors took advantage of a batter hit by a pitch to score in the first inning.
    After two scoreless innings, Imperial got on the board with a four-run third inning. Bryder Hickey started the inning with a walk. Singles from Tysen Lempke, Jaret Peterson and Morel Jurado, plus a double by Nolan Burrell, set the Horns up to take the lead, 4-1.
    A single by Lempke and RBI single by Burrell increased the lead to 5-1 after the top of the fifth inning.
    Gothenburg answered with three two-out runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to four Imperial errors.
    Jurado moved around the bases in the fifth inning after being hit by a pitch, then scored on a wild pitch. Imperial couldn’t capitalize on bases loaded with one out, however, as its half of the inning ended on a double play.
    Gothenburg took advantage, batting around and scoring five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
    Although the Horns held Gothenburg scoreless as the game wore down, Imperial couldn’t muster any runs either.
    Trailing 6-9, Burrell and Emmitt Zuege were stranded on third and second, respectively, in the sixth inning.
    Lempke scored two runs on two hits and a walk. Burrell had three RBIs.
    The Horns’ were out hit 9-12.
    Burrell, Lempke and Colin O’Neil pitched for Imperial.
    Jaret Peterson homered for the juniors in the first inning.
    After a quiet second inning, Gavin Wisnieski singled to start the third inning and moved to second on a single by Thomas Reeves. Both scored on a Peterson home run to center field.
    Imperial went scoreless in the fourth inning, but put Gothenburg to bed in the fifth.
    Cooper Dillan led off the inning and was hit by a pitch. Jaret Peterson walked before both batters advanced on a wild pitch. Mason Wallin tripled up the middle to drive both home. Camron Lempke walked, then advanced on a pass ball and grounder before scoring on a single from Wisnieski. Westyn Mendenhall also walked and came around to round out scoring in the shut out win.
    Jaret Peterson, Dillan and Tyler O’Neil allowed only one hit and one walk by Gothenburg to go with 10 strike outs.
Beat Cambridge
    Thursday against Cambridge was the start of a four-game home stand for the Horns.
    The juniors opened the evening with a 5-11 win.
    The Horns held Cambridge scoreless over the first two innings. Although Imperial was scoreless in the first, the Horns plated four runs in the second with the help of a batter hit by a pitch, a wild pitch, a passed ball and two errors.
    Four walks and a double helped Cambridge cut into Imperial’s lead.
    The Horns held a one-run advantage, 4-3, and used Cambridge miscues to score C. Lempke.
    After Cambridge failed to score in the fourth inning, Imperial tacked on three more runs on four Cambridge errors.
    Three walks led to two Cambridge runs in the top of fifth inning and, after Imperial was scoreless in the fifth, sent the game into the sixth inning with Imperial leading 8-5.
    The Horns held Cambridge scoreless in the final two innings, but tacked on three security runs in the sixth. Peterson led off with a single and moved around the bases with two pass balls. Peterson and Carson Terryberry both scored to round out the 11-5 win.
    Tristan Jablonski, C. Lempke and Peterson allowed two hits and 10 walks while striking out 14.
    The seniors completed the sweep with an 14-1 win.
    Each of the Horns’ first four batters scored in the first inning and Imperial plated three more runs in the second inning.
    After increasing its lead to 8-0 in the third inning, Imperial allowed Cambridge its first run. C. O’Neil struck out six batters across four innings while walking one and giving up two hits.
    Imperial responded with its best offensive inning of the game. The Horns added two walks and an error to four hits and scored five runs.
    Jurado faced three batters in the fifth inning to seal the win.
    Keenan Cole had two hits and two RBIs. T. Lempke scored three runs.
Juniors’ double header
    The seniors had Saturday off, but the juniors made up for it with a double header against Lexington.
    Imperial gave up two first inning singles and found themselves trailing 0-1 heading into their first at bat. Jaret Peterson and Mason Wallin reached base then were driven home by a single from Wisnieski.
    Once they had the lead, the Horns never looked back.
    Imperial held Lexington scoreless from the second through fifth innings.
    Three Lexington errors in the third inning contributed to four Horns’ runs, as did singles by Thomas Reeves and Mendenhall and a homer from Jaret Peterson.
    Imperial benefited from two more Lexington errors in the fifth inning to score two more runs.
    A walk and three singles led to two Lexington runs in the sixth inning, but the Horns ended the game with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning behind two Lexington errors, three singles and a double to cap the 11-3 win.
    Wisnieski and Wallin each had three hits. Wisnieski drove in four runs.
    The Horns had 11 hits to Lexington’s six hits and had one error to Lexington’s seven.
    Thomas Reeves and Wisnieski handled pitching duties, striking out 10 and walking eight.
    Imperial took a 14-2 win in game two.     The Horns jumped all over Lexington early, scoring 11 runs in the first inning. Six batters reached base by walks and one was hit by a pitch, while five had hits.
    Three second inning errors led to two more runs for Imperial.
    Lexington got on the board with two runs in the third inning, but Imperial got one run back in the bottom of the inning.
     After holding Lexington scoreless in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings, the game wrapped up without Imperial batting in the bottom of the fifth.
    T. O’Neil and Wallin struck out seven and walked six batters.
Battle Holdrege
    Saturday’s junior-senior double header against Holdrege ended sooner than expected when the seniors’ game was rained out in the top of the fifth inning with the score tied at eight.
    The game will be made up June 12 when Imperial travels to Holdrege for their regularly scheduled game.
    The juniors looked to have their game in the bag, but a five-run seventh inning by Holdrege cost Imperial the win.
    The Horns grabbed a one-run lead after the first inning, but couldn’t take advantage of the bases being loaded.
    Holdrege took the lead in the third inning after four Imperial errors.
    Imperial didn’t trail for long. An error, three walks and a double drove four runs home and put the Horns ahead 5-3.
    The teams traded the lead again in the fourth inning. Holdrege scored three runs and four hits, but Imperial responded with two runs on an error and single to stay ahead 7-6.
    Two more Imperial runs came across the plate in the sixth inning, and the teams headed into the seventh inning with Imperial leading 9-6.
    Holdrege’s leadoff batter reached base on an error, which was followed up by three walks to bring in a run. A fielder’s choice gave Imperial two outs with the bases loaded, setting up a three RBI double by Holdrege. Holdrege added one more run then sat Imperial down in order to end the game in an 9-11 Horns’ loss.
    Jaret Peterson, Cooper Dillan and Tyler O’Neil pitched for Imperial. The trio struck out 13, walked six and allowed seven hits.
    The home stand ended Tuesday against McCook. A game recap will be available in next week’s Republican.
    The Horns will head to Hershland Thursday before the seniors will get a bit of a break over the weekend when juniors will head to the Bandit Junior Bash in Overton Saturday and Sunday.
    McCook is on the schedule once more next Tuesday with the game being played in McCook.