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The Junior /Senior legion games with Hartington were washed out on Tuesday, June 14. It has not been rescheduled as of this time. On Friday, June 17 both Irish teams traveled to Stanton. The Irish Juniors started the evening by falling behind 0-5 after the first two innings. Alex Fuhrer scored first for the Irish in the fourth, then Kyle Loecker, Shea Lueninghoner, and Tate Schutt all scored in the fifth inning closing the gap to 4-5. Meanwhile, Kyle Loecker started on the mound and pitched the first four and one-third innings. Luke Loecker came in to pitch at that point inheriting runners on second and third. After an intentional walk to load the bases, the Irish turned a double play on a ground ball to get out of the inning. The Irish went quietly in the sixth inning but started the seventh inning with a hit batsman who stole second. Luke Loecker followed with an RBI single and went to second on the throw to the plate. Alex Fuhrer then followed with another RBI single, plating the go ahead run. Stanton got a hit in the bottom of the seventh but could not advance him past second due to good defensive play. The result was an Irish a 6-5 victory. The Irish Senior game was an offensive explosion as the Irish plated runs in every inning with the final tally being 20-9. The Irish had the Mustangs down by 8 runs a couple of times but just could not maintain the lead at the bottom of the inning so the game could be over early so we played late into the night. During this game every Irish batter crossed the plate at least one time. Kurtis Mliner had a perfect night going three for three at the plate. Additionally Kurtis had two walks, scored four runs and also had two stolen bases. Ian Lueninghoener started on the mound, pitching five and a third innings allowing only one earned run and striking out five Mustang batters. Kyle Eby pitched the remainder of the sixth striking out two. Dillon Jakubowski started on the mound in the seventh and Tyson Schutt relieved him for the final two outs of the game. The following morning the Irish Juniors started Creighton Berrypepper days off with another come from behind victory over Crofton. Once again the Irish fell behind as Crofton scored one run in each of the first three innings. But in the bottom of the third the Irish came alive starting with a double by Luke Loecker. Alex Fuhrer knocked him in with a single. Then Shane Willats was hit by a pitch and Angel Rodriguez walked loading the bases. Marcus McNichols knocked in two with a single. Shea Lueninghoener was hit by a pitch to load the bases again. Josh Womack then laid down a squeeze bunt scoring Angel for the go ahead run. That was all the Irish needed as the Irish pitchers and defense did the rest. Shane Willats started the game and pitched into the fifth inning. After giving up a single in the fifth inning with one out, Luke Loecker took over the pitching duties, shutting down the Crofton bats. The Irish Seniors took the field for the early afternoon game with Crofton. Kurtis Mliner took the mound and pitched very well, taking a one hitter through five innings. He entered the sixth inning allowing only one unearned run to score and striking out four Crofton batters. Meanwhile the Irish bats seemed to be used up from the prior nights game, only scraping out four hits and scoring two runs. In the top of the sixth Crofton had back to back extra base hits and an error gave them a one run lead before Kyle Eby came to the mound to get the Irish to the bottom half of the inning. Derek Blumingstock and Tyson Schutt pitched the final stanza, but the Irish bats could not figure out the Crofton pitcher to score any more runs. Sunday the Irish Seniors played the early game for third place against the Neligh. The Irish bats scored runs in every inning as the Irish blanked Neligh 10-0 in a five inning game shortened by the eight run rule. The Irish scored only one run in the first and left the bases loaded before exploding for seven runs in the second inning with three extra base hits. Jordyn Johnson took the mound and faced the minimum 12 batters in the first four innings. Tyson Schutt pitched a hitless top of the fifth inning so the Irish did not have to bat in the fifth. Neligh had only one hit and only batted 16 in the five inning game. The later game for the Junior title pitted the Irish Juniors against Creighton in an exciting extra inning game. Donnie Taylor started on the mound holding Creighton to one run over 6 innings. Then in the seventh, a bad hop on a ground ball, an error and two close calls that went against the Irish allowed Creighton to knot the score at five a piece. On the offensive side the Irish scored one in the first, and two in each of the third and forth innings. The Irish had plenty of chances to score more as they left the bases loaded in the second, fourth, and ninth innings, and stranded runners in scoring position in the first, fifth, and seventh innings. Luke Loecker took over the pitching duties in the eighth after Creighton tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. Neither team scored in the eighth as the Irish had a runner called out at the plate. The Irish started the ninth with a walk and a hit batsman then open the game up with three straight singles by Donnie Taylor, Shane Willats and Kyle Pardon. The defense did the rest holding Creighton scoreless resulting in the final tally 8-5 and taking home the 2011 Berrypepper first place trophy. Bloomfield/Madison visits the Irish on Tuesday. Creighton comes to Fred Appleby Field on Thursday and the Irish Juniors travel to Randolph on Friday for a busy week of American Legion Baseball. Then on June 27 Burwell/Sargent will come to O’Neill and then the Irish travel to Neligh on July first to finish the Elkhorn Valley league schedule.
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