Magic Runs Out: Neligh Falls To Creighton To End Season

An offensive surge guided the Creighton Junior baseball team past Neligh, 11-1 in six innings, Monday night in the Legion District Championship game at Pierce.

"We had two huge innings for us to pull away," said Creighton coach Kyle Kibbie. "We shifted the momentum our way and there for a while, I thought they (Neligh) had the momentum. We were struggling, but that fourth inning really changed it for us."

"We did alright," said Neligh coach Dan Murray. "We hung in there until the fourth and fifth inning. We lost the fight a little bit. We had a couple of errors and you could see it took the sails out from underneath us. But overall, I'm super proud of these guys. A lot of these people didn't expect these guys to go more than two games in the tournament and we end up as runner-up in the district. I'm pleased with how they fought the whole tournament."

Creighton struck first with a run in the opening inning, but Neligh knotted the contest at one in its next at bat after Kaleb Pofahl scored on a passed ball.

Neligh had a golden opportunity to claim the lead. Neligh loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fourth, but a foul out and pop out ended the threat.

Creighton responded with five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Alex Homan ripped a RBI single to center for the first run and Conor Hammer followed with a two-run single to left. Dade Davis then laced a shot to the rightfield fence and came all the way around to score on an inside-the-park home run.

"Those three hits in-a-row won us the game," Kibbie said. "It was huge for us. Our pitcher (Carson Lilly) was struggling before that for a little bit. After that, you could tell he went back out there a lot of calmer and more settled down. It affected the whole team, all the way through."

After Neligh went down in order in the fifth, Creighton tallied four more runs on a bases loaded walk, a Homan sacrifice fly, a wild pitch and a balk.

Creighton sealed the district title when Mitchell Mackeprang scored in the bottom of the sixth off a Neligh error.

Lilly recorded the win on the mound. In 6 2/3 innings, Lilly gave up one run on four hits and struck out six.

"We knew from day one he was going to be our ace on the mound," Kibbie said. "He was the one who was going to have to win us a lot of games. He didn't have his best stuff today, but he knows how to win baseball games. That's what it came down to, he trusted his defense, went out and got the next guy."

Hammer led Creighton with two hits, two runs batted in and two runs scored.

Beau Murray picked up the loss. In 3 2/3 innings, Murray allowed five runs on five hits and struck out five.

Murray, Pofahl, Hunter Charf and Dawson Kaup each singled for Neligh.

Creighton (18-5) advances to the state tournament for the fifth consecutive year.

"It's big for us," Kibbie said on having experience at the state tournament. "We're happy to go, but it's not our goal. Now our goal is to go and win it (a state title). Those kids know it and they're going to come in ready to go."

The sixth-seeded Neligh ends its season with an 8-6 record. 

"We came out with the mentality that we were going to do it (win) every game," said coach Murray. "We did fine tonight until the one inning (the fourth). They really fought and they didn't give up. I'm super proud of the way we did that. One of the things we had to battle with these guys on all year long was keeping the fight every game. They did it for this tournament and I'm proud of them."