Horns’ Junior Legion clinches state tourney berth

The drive to Gordon and Rushville for district baseball was long, and the turnaround for state is short, but you won’t hear any complaints from Imperial Junior Legion players or fans.
The team won the C7 district tournament Monday night in Rushville and will take off Friday for the state playoffs in Pender.
Open over Hershland
Imperial opened the tournament with a 14-6 win over Hershland Friday.
Both teams loaded the bases in the first inning, but neither was able to score runs.
Hershland was the first to get on the board. A second inning single and double brought home one run.
Morel Jurado led off the inning being hit by a pitch. Jurado advanced on a single by Nolan Foster, then a fielder’s choice. A balk scored Jurado for the Horns’ first run.
Imperial was far from done in the inning. Tristan Jablonski scored on a fly ball. Cooper Dillan and Triston Hite walked  and both scored on a homerun by Carter Leibbrandt. Tyler O’Neil was the Horns’ sixth run, scoring on a double by Mason Wallin.
Hershland loaded the bases once more in the third inning, but, like the first inning, didn’t score any runs.
The Horns steadily added to their total.
Foster singled to lead off the third inning. Foster and Dillan scored on a single by Jaret Peterson, but Imperial left the bases loaded in the inning.
Imperial pitcher Colin O’Neil struck out three of the four batters he faced in the fourth inning.
His teammates helped his cause with two more runs in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by a double from Dillan.
Hershland cut into Imperial’s 10-1 lead in the fifth inning.
Behind five singles, Hershland scored five runs.
Leibbrandt and T. O’Neil led off the bottom of the fifth with walks. Jurado scored Leibbrandt and moved T. O’Neil to third with double. After a walk by Foster, a wild pitch would bring T. O’Neil home, advance Jurado to third and Foster to second.
Back-to-back errors scored Jurado and Foster and gave Imperial the eight-run lead it needed to end the game.
C. O’Neil threw 106 pitches in the complete game win, and struck out seven.
Imperial was outhit 10-8, but walked 12 times to Hershland’s four.
J. Peterson and Leibbrandt, batting third and fourth, respectively, drove in three runs each.
Coach Bruce Peterson said the strike zone was “super tight.”
“Colin adjusted to it and kept battling through it. Our hitters took advantage of it for free base runners,” Peterson said, adding, he never felt like Imperial was at risk of losing so he wanted O’Neil to go the distance.
Semifinals win over hosts
The Horns took on hosts, Sheridan County, Saturday.
The Regulators wrapped up their first-round win earlier that afternoon after a rain delay cut Friday evening’s game against Valentine short.
Second-seeded Sheridan County scored their lead-off batter in the bottom of the first inning.
It took four more innings before any more runs were scored.
Imperial batters struck out six times in the first four innings. The Horns stranded runners on first base twice and left runners on second and third in the third inning.
The Horns rallied with two outs in the top of the fifth. Dillan walked and advanced around the bases thanks to back-to-back singles by Hite and J. Peterson. Hite stole home to give Imperial a 2-1 lead, but  Peterson was left on third.
Three Imperial errors helped Sheridan County tie the game 2-2 in the sixth inning.
With the game on the line, both teams went scoreless in the seventh and headed into extra innings.
Sheridan County was forced to change pitchers with two outs in the seventh inning. Imperial would take advantage of the change.
The Horns started the eighth with a strikeout before T. O’Neil walked.
Despite a second strikeout, Imperial wasn’t done. Tysen Lempke was hit by a pitch to give Imperial runners on first and second. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and C. O’Neil loaded the bases with a walk. Thomas Reeves was hit by a pitch to bring home T. O’Neil. Lempke came around to score thanks to catcher interference during Dillan’s at-bat.
A fly out to center field left three runners stranded, but the damage was done.
Two Regulator strikeouts around a ground-out ended the game, a 4-2 Imperial win.
Peterson went deep into his bullpen in the game.
Though he intended Hite to go the whole game, Peterson used Jurado for one out in the fifth inning, then brought in J. Peterson for two and two-thirds innings. Leibbrandt induced a strikeout to end the game.
“It worked out in the end because we still had a lot of pitching left” for Monday’s championship game, Peterson said.
All together, the four struck out 17 and walked seven, while giving up four hits.
The Horns only walked three times in the game, but two came in the eighth inning.
Dillan, J. Peterson and Reeves each earned RBIs.
With Sunday off, Peterson said part of the team traveled home and some stayed. Either way, it was a rest day that Sheridan County didn’t get.
The Regulators used a big third inning to take a 15-4 win over Hershland Sunday and set up a rematch with the Horns in the championship game.
Takes two for championship
Imperial held the upper hand in the championship after winning its first two games.
That didn’t deter Sheridan County though.
The Horns, listed as the visitor in the first game, struggled to get their offense going. Imperial was scoreless in the first five innings and left four runners on base.
A first inning home run gave Sheridan County a 2-0 lead, but the Regulators struggled to score runs for the next three innings, as well, before scoring once more in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Imperial looked like it would get going in the sixth inning.
Hite walked and advanced to second on a ground-out, but got caught for an out at third base on a grounder to the shortstop.