Three wins in two days gave the Seward Legion juniors the number one spot at the Gretchen Walker Memorial Tournament in Crete June 25 and 26.
Seward opened play with a 17-1 win over Crete June 25. Seward Coach Micah Ramage said his team scored 12 runs before recording the second out of the first inning.
Hector Sanchez, Max Briggs and Collin Nagel each had two hits. Braiden Herring doubled and drove in three, and Conner Sveeggen drove in two.
Game two June 25 put Seward up against Holdrege, and Seward walked off with an 8-7 win.
Holdrege scored three in the top of the fifth to take a 7-6 lead. Nagel opened the bottom of the inning being hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a ground out. Dylan Read reached on an error that sent Nagel to third.
Cale Gardiner hit a ground ball to second to drive in Nagel and move Read, who had stolen second, to third base. After Conner Matzke walked, Herring singled to second to drive in Read with the winning run.
Carl Taylor led the team with two hits in the game, including a triple. Nagel doubled and drove in two runs.
Seward played Wilber June 26 and run-ruled them 10-2. Herring, Ryley Hain, Henry Lewis and Sveeggen had two hits each. Lewis hit a double and drove in four runs. Taylor and Sveeggen had two RBIs each.
Sveeggen pitched all five innings for Seward, striking out six.
Ramage said Sveeggen is hitting well right now, and Matzke threw well in his three innings against Crete. Nagel is doing a good job filling in wherever he’s needed.
Ramage was pleased with the team’s offense, which continues to roll.
“No one is hitting under .200,” he said. “Everyone wants to get out and play.”
The team was scheduled to play Waverly June 21, but a scheduling mix-up canceled the game.
Seward (14-5-2) is the top seed for its league tournament this week. The team will play at Ashland June 28 against the winner of the Nebraska City/Ashland game. With a win, Seward would play Wednesday, June 29, at 8 p.m. A loss moves them to Thursday.
Districts are scheduled to start Friday, July 8. Brackets had not been released yet.
