Irish Teams Competing Tough In Tournament Play

Derek Blumenstock snags one behind the plate. Photo courtesy Mike Peterson.

Thursday started the Elkhorn Valley League Tournament for the Irish Juniors by bringing Bloomfield to O’Neill in a first round game. The first three innings were a scoreless pitching duel. All the scoring action for the entire game came in the fourth inning when Bloomfield started with a walk and a single and got a second single to score one run. Kyle Pardun was pitching for the Irish and then struck out the final two batters to get out of the inning. The Irish rallied in the bottom of the inning by starting with a single by Shane Willats and another single by Tate Schutt who advanced to second on the throw. Consecutive ground balls by Tony Castro and Michael Wecker scored Shane and Tate. That was all Kyle needed as he pitched the complete game allowing only two other hits. The Irish defense was solid with only one error. 

The Irish Juniors then moved on to the second round to play at Crofton. Shane Willats took the mound for the Irish. Crofton scored first with one run in the first and two more in the second. They added two more in the sixth despite only having four hits. The Irish threatened in the first, third and fifth innings but could not get a timely hit and had an unusual call go against them to snuff out the rally. Then in the top of the seventh the Irish came alive scoring three runs but again had a call go against them that slowed the rally. However, the Irish put runners on second and third with the go ahead run at the plate when the final out was recorded on a long fly ball. The Irish Juniors showed great composure and never gave up in an exciting game that ended their regular season. Next up for the Juniors is Area 5 play where they are seeded fourth and will start out playing Central City.

Meanwhile the Irish Seniors with the number one seed received a forfeit from Madison on Friday to move to the semi-final game Sunday night with Crofton. Jordyn Johnson took the pitching duties for the Irish allowing only two hits while striking out ten in seven innings of work. The winning run came in the second inning as Connor Peterson started the inning getting hit by a pitch and stole second. Kyle Loecker rapped a double into left center scoring Connor. The Irish scored three more in the sixth for insurance as Derek Blumenstock, Luke Loecker and Shane Willats all had hits. Kyle Loecker walked and Alex Fuhrer got on due to Crofton’s only error to make the final 4-0. The Irish move on to the league final at Crofton Monday night to play Creighton who beat Hartington 5-4 in the other semi-final game.