The Zig Drywall Post 348 Senior Legion baseball team broke its seven-game losing streak Friday at an Elkhorn Mount Michael tournament.
The Pioneers just didn't do it the way they probably expected to after seven-straight defeats. Coach Jerry Wellwood's team tied Millard Sox Gold in its second game of the day, 5-5.
“It's not a great feeling,” starting pitcher Sam Genoways said. “But it's not as bad as a loss.”
Through two days of the Elkhorn Training Camp Knights' tourney, though, Fort Calhoun was 1-1-1 and 6-10-1 overall. Post 348 picked up its first win since June 12 on Saturday against Belle Fourche, S.D., after a 0-1-1 start Friday.
The Pioneers tied their tournament opener with Springfield during the bottom of the fourth inning, 1-1, as Genoways' RBI double found the outfield grass. It was all coach Wellwood's lineup could muster, though, as Post 348 dropped to 0-1 at Mount Michael with a 4-1 loss.
In Game No. 2, though, the Seniors came back from a 5-0 deficit against the Sox for a 5-all tie through seven innings. The game was called then as officials kept the tourney schedule on track.
“If we play another inning, we're going to win that game,” Genoways said. He noted the Pioneers' slow start, but also commented on their comeback.
Fort Calhoun scored its first run against Millard during the fourth inning. Kenny Wellwood walked and Chase Premer hit a stand-up double before Sam Halford recorded a sacrifice fly, pulling the Pioneers within 5-1.
Genoways' fifth-frame RBI single to left field cut Post 348's deficit to three runs before it evened the score in the sixth. Wellwood and Premer reached base again then before Carter Christensen loaded them. Halford later hit a hard ball to the Sox's shortstop, who booted it.
“I thought it was hit pretty good,” the batter said. “It took a good hop for me, but not for him.”
Halford's contact scored two runs before he himself scored on a failed pick-off throw into the outfield from the Millard catcher. Standing at third base, the Pioneer said he saw how high the throw to second base was as AJ Duros stole it, but he had already made up his mind.
“I was going to go anyway,” Halford said.
The Pioneers and Sox played one more inning thereafter, but neither team scored before the tie went official.
Against Belle Fourche, Post 348 earned a 2-0 lead and officially won 3-2 when Austin Welchert scored the game-winning run during the fifth frame. The heady base runner also plated Halford during the second inning, while Christensen scored when Tristan Fuhrman hit into an error.
Fort Calhoun's Levi Lasher earned the win on the mound, the Pioneers' first in eight games.
The Mount Michael tournament continued Sunday. Results will appear in Friday's edition of the Washington County Enterprise.
Pioneers lose late lead
Post 348 led Millard Sox Gold 6-0 through four innings June 21, too, but lost 9-7 in eight innings.
Welchert reached base four times at home, Genoways and Chase Bierman notched two hits each and Bierman finished with three RBIs, but it wasn't enough. The Sox scored four runs during the top of the fifth inning and two more in the sixth.
Clinging to a 7-6 lead, Fort Calhoun gave up the tying run to Millard during the top of the seventh inning. With two outs and two runners on base, an RBI single evened the score.
Halford answered with a leadoff double during the bottom half, but the Pioneers eventually lost by a pair of runs in extra innings.
POST 348 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Saturday
Fort Calhoun 3, Belle Fourche (S.D.) 2
BF 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 — 2
FC (6-10-1) 0 2 0 0 1 0 X — 3
Friday
Fort Calhoun 5, Millard Sox Gold 5, tie
MSG 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 — 5
FC (5-10-1) 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 — 5
Springfield 4, Fort Calhoun 1
SPRING 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 — 1
FC (5-10) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 — 4
June 21
Millard Sox Gold 9, Fort Calhoun 7, 8 inn.
SOX GOLD 0 0 0 0 4 2 1 2 — 9
FC (5-9) 0 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 — 7
