Strong PItching Leads Neligh To Split At Hartington

The past week has been a tale of two seasons for the Neligh Juniors and Seniors. While one team has found their stride at the plate, the other has struggled to find the win column.

Its been the Juniors that have been strong over the past few games at the plate, winning another high-scoring game with a 13-7 victory over Hartington. 

The scoring got started right away when Cole Belitz scored after a leadoff single. However, the Neligh bats calmed down for the next three innings while Hartington posted three runs. Once the fifth inning came around, the scoring explosion started. The Juniors posted six runs, starting with a Kaleb Pofahl score. Jayden Arehart, Belitz, Beau Murray, Andrew Herley and Hunter Reestman all followed suit. The scoring continued in a big way in the sixth as Belitz, Murray, Herley, Reestman all scored again and Hunter Charf added his first score of the night. Reestman added one more score in the seventh to seal the win for Neligh.

Neligh scored their 13 runs on 15 hits. Only four Junior batters were sat down on strikes.

On the mound, Beau Murray had an impressive night, throwing 103 pitches before giving way to Conor Ramold for the save. The two combined for eight strikeouts on the night while allowing 10 hits.

In the late game, the Seniors continued their rough week, falling in a close one to Hartington 3-2. 

Tyson Belitz scored both of the Neligh runs from his leadoff spot. As a team, Neligh recorded just two hits off the Hartington pitching staff. 

Despite the struggles at the plate, Neligh was still in position to take the win for much of the night thanks to strong work on the mound from Belitz. He, along with relief man Tyson Zegers, recorded an incredible 14 strikeouts on the night, including all three batters in the opening frame. A triple to start the second led to the only Hartington run until the final inning. However, Neligh was unable to hold on to their 2-1 lead in the final frame as Hartington pulled out two runs to take the walk-off win.