Survive and advance.
Falls City’s Blue Storm Juniors did just that last night as they defeated Nebraska City 2-1 in an elimination game of the Class B Area 1 District tournament at Syracuse.
Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, FC’s Trenton Pentecost drew a walk and moved all the way around to third on a pair of sacrifice flies, the first from Tyler DiGiacomo and the second from Logan Scheitel.
Austin Malone stepped in and sent the first pitch he saw into left field for the walk-off single to keep the Blue Storm Juniors’ season alive.
FC, now 19-10, will face either top-seeded Hickman or No. 2 Beatrice tonight at 7 in the loser’s bracket. A win moves them into Wednesday’s district championship where they would have to defeat Hickman or Beatrice twice to advance to the State Tournament in Elkhorn July 20-24.
Monday night’s walk-off victory marked the second one-run victory over Nebraska City in four days.
In Friday’s opening round game, FC defeated Nebraska City 6-5 in extra innings. Beatrice shutout FC 10-0 Saturday, but the Blue Storm responded with 11 runs over the final three innings and won 14-7 Sunday afternoon to eliminate Auburn.
Sawyer Kean went 4-5 and drove in four for FC in the win over Auburn. Trenton Pentecost was a perfect 3-3 and drove in a pair, while DiGiacomo and Zack Jordening drove in three and two runs, respectively.
Kean, DiGiacomo and Malone each stole three bases, as FC racked up 14 steals against Auburn.
Weston Witt (4-3) struck out eight and earned the complete game victory for FC.
Jeremy Robinson’s two-out single in the top of the seventh Friday night scored Preston Deckinger and put FC ahead 5-3, but Nebraska City’s Chris Monaghan launched a two-run home run off DiGiacomo with one out in the bottom of the seventh to tie it. A pair of singles by Scheitel and DiGiacomo to start the eighth were followed by Jordening’s ground ball sacrifice to first that plated Scheitel for the eventual game-winner.
DiGiacomo pitched solid prior to giving up the home run. He had allowed only five hits and three earned runs, while recording four strikeouts to one walk before Monaghan’s game-tying blast.
DiGiacomo and Logan Scheitel, who picked up the victory in relief, also led FC at the plate. The duo batted 4-5 in the lineup and were responsible for four of FC’s seven hits. DiGiacomo drove in two runs, while Weston Witt and Jordening each had one RBI.
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