Horns fall short of Junior Legion championship game

The Imperial Pinnacle Bank Horns effort to earn a repeat berth in the Class C Junior Legion State Tournament championship game fell short Tuesday night with a 5-1 loss to Palmer-Wolbach-Greeley .
Wednesday’s state championship game was a rematch of Monday’s semifinal game in which Malcolm beat PWG 13-1.
A full recap of Tuesday and Wednesday’s game will be available in next week’s Republican.
Four games Saturday
Dannebrog-Cairo-Boelus and Pender were the first teams on the field Saturday.
After Pender scored the game’s first run in the third, DCB responded with six runs in their half of the inning and cruised to a comfortable 10-2 win.
PWG and Tecumseh played a much more competitive game.  PWG was first on the board with a run in the first inning. The Blue Ducks increased their lead to 3-0 with two runs in the sixth before giving up one run to Tecumseh in the bottom of the inning. PWG would advance in the winners bracket with a 3-1 win.
Defending Junior Legion champion and this spring’s NSAA Class C state champion, Malcolm, took on Valentine in the third game of the day.
Valentine, which finished as runners up in Imperial’s Area 7 district, put up three runs, but struggled to contain Malcolm’s offense. Malcolm would advance with a 12-3 win in six innings.
The hometown Horns and Crofton wrapped up the first day of games.
Crofton led off with a double and single to right field, but was unable to capitalize when Imperial’s right fielder George Colton gunned down a Crofton runner at home plate.
Imperial also got runners on base early. Thomas Reeves led off with a single and came around to score on a hit by Gavin Wisnieski.
Crofton continued to drive Noah Rau’s pitches to right field but remained scoreless through two innings.
The Horns took advantage of Crofton mistakes in the bottom of the second, setting up a four-run inning that included a three-run homer by Jaret Peterson.
Crofton’s offense broke free in the third inning, getting five hits and scoring six runs.
Base runners were few and far between until the sixth inning when Imperial’s Carson Terryberry was hit by a pitch and come around to score on an error.
With the game tied at 6-6 heading into the seventh, Imperial got a Crofton out at home plate to set up a dramatic end to the game.
Peterson and Gavin Wisnieski each singled, but it was passed balls that sent Peterson across home plate for the win.
Rau finished the game with 42 pitches, Camron Lempke with 46 and Peterson with 13.  
Imperial was out hit by Crofton, 6-10. Each team had three errors.
Lempke and Peterson each had two hits for Imperial.
Horns Head Coach Bruce Peterson said Imperial used to just try to win the first game, after seeing how far they could go last year, the Horns are looking for more now.
Getting the first round win was big for his Horns, he added.
Teams eliminated Sunday
Elimination games  started off Sunday.
Pender used a six-run third inning to keep its season alive with a 11-3 five inning win over Tecumseh.
Crofton took seven innings to send Valentine packing, 16-9.
In the first winners bracket game, PWG gave up six runs to DCB in the top of the seventh to send the game to extra innings. After giving up a run to DCB in the top of the eighth, PWG got the walk off win, 10-9, with two runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Imperial faced Malcolm in the final game of the night. The game was a rematch of last year’s Junior Legion state championship.
Peterson said he knew Malcolm had been on his players minds and they were uptight about the game, but he didn’t have a solution to the problem.
Imperial had six errors in the 0-13 loss. The Horns didn’t get a hit until the sixth inning.
Four teams remained Monday
With Tecumseh and Valentine eliminated Sunday, three games were on the schedule Monday, starting with DCB and Crofton in the losers bracket.
DCB got off to a hot start and built an 8-0 lead. Crofton responded late, scoring nine runs in the final three innings for an 11-10 win.
Imperial and Pender played the day’s second elimination game. Tristan Jablonski scored on a second inning double by Carson Terryberry, his first of two doubles on the day, to open scoring. Peterson said Terryberry’s performance stood out in the game.
The Horns defense bent, but didn’t break, giving the offense time to add three more runs and build a 4-0 lead by the end of the fourth inning. Terryberry started the charge with a double and scored on a double by Reeves.
Pender wasn’t easy to put away, scoring twice in the fifth inning and loading the bases in the sixth, before Imperial closed out the 4-2 win.
Reeves went 4-4 for the Horns.Rau and Lempke combined on the mound for the win.