Hartington Juniors earn big win over Crofton-Wynot team

HARTINGTON — Coach Scott Heine was pleased to see his juniors bounce back from an opening day defeat to Valentine with an 11-3 win over Crofton/Wynot.

“We beat a pretty salty team with, I feel, their ace on the mound and our second baseman Keaton Steffen pitching for us,” Heine said. “We asked Keaton to get us a few innings because a few of our main pitchers had just pitched or were on vacation. Keaton handled himself great and ended up pitching the whole game.”

“Our hitting was outstanding. Tyan Baller, Brett Kleinschmit, Jaelen Lammers, Carson Arens and many others hit really well.”

Steffen scattered five hits and struck out two while going the full five innings in the mercy-rule win.

Kleinschmit had four hits and two RBI, while Steffen helped his cause with a grand slam and six RBI.

“Next week, I hope we clean up some poor base running habits and continue to play sound baseball,” Heine said. “All of our pitchers should be rested so I feel good going into this next week.”

The senior American Legion squad fell to 0-2 after a 15-1 home loss to Crofton.

They lost their opener to Valentine a few days earlier.

“Our pitchers had some strong starts, but we need to work on finishing the game,” coach Ryan Heimes said. “Batting started strong but had issues keeping them alive. We have a lot of baseball this week, so I’m hoping we come out hungry.

“We are going to see some really good competition. We can only get better.”

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