Juniors improve to 6-3 on the season

HARTINGTON — The Hartington Amercian Legion Juniors moved to 6-3 this season with wins over Battle Creek (12-4) and Wisner-Pilger (11-6) sandwiched between a 3-1 loss to Pierce.

In beating Battle Creek, Keaton Steffen and Grant Arens shared top honors at the plate with two hits apiece, while Weston Heine and Brett Kleinschmit drove in a pair of runs each.

Lucas Wortmann threw four strong innings and struck out five batters to earn the win.

Arens, Jaxson Bernecker and Lane Heimes all had two hits apiece with Heimes driving in two runs to cruise past Wisner-Pilger.

Kleinschmit added a homerun and Steffen threw four innings and left with a 5-3 lead to earn the win from the bump.

Hartington Seniors

A 6-4 win over Wisner-Pilger moved the Seniors to 3-12 this summer after dropping 16-13 and 8-4 decisions to Pierce and Battle Creek.

The win ended a seven-game losing streak for the boys.

The Seniors scored twice in the extra inning to secure the victory

Carter Arens had three hits and three RBI to spark the victory.

Chase Lammers had a teamhigh three hits against Pierce and along with Daniel Puppe and Deagan Puppe, tied for top honors with two RBI each.

Lammers and Owen Heimes had two hits each against Battle Creek.

“Pitching was on point this week and we really improved in small ball, as well,” coach Ryan Heimes said.

Hitting is still an issue, though, he said.

“We need to work on our approach at the plate,” Heimes said.

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