Broken Bow advanced to the winner’s bracket of the B6 American Legion juniors baseball tournament Friday by edging Gothenburg 10-9 in a game and finish that was somewhat indescribable. The two teams battled to a 3-3 tie after five innings and then played two dramatic and crazy innings that had fans on the edge of their seats. Broken Bow took a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning and then, with two out, Drew Ellis put a ground ball in play and appeared to have been thrown out at first for the third out of the inning. However, catcher interference was called against Gothenburg to allow the inning to continue and Broken Bow would take advantage scoring a total of seven runs in the inning. In the bottom of the sixth, Gothenburg was able to respond sending 10 men to the plate and scoring 5 runs to make the score 10-8 going to the 7th. After Broken Bow was held scoreless in the top of the 7th, Gothenburg was able to put the tying runs on base with one out. Aiden McKenna singled on a line drive to right field but Trey Stevens was thrown out at the plate trying to score. Preston Nichols kept the game alive for Gothenburg with a two out single which drove in Jackson Schwanz to make it a one run game and move the tying run to third base. With runners on the corners and two out, Gothenburg’s Tylor Stueban was able to draw a walk but during the play the Gothenburg base runner at third took off toward home and was tagged out by Broken Bow catcher Max Denson to end the game. Tayte Thorton, Owen Hartman, and Xack Lowry had multi hit games for the Bow juniors. Thorton and Coy Wardyn each drove in two runs to help lead the Broken Bow offense.
Broken Bow will play Minden in a winner’s bracket game Saturday at 7 p.m. Minden defeated McCook in the opening round 8-0. Gothenburg will try to avoid elimination on Saturday when they face top seed Holdrege who defeated Ogallala Friday 9-1. Round two of the tournament will begin Saturday with an elimination game between Ogallala and McCook at 1 p.m.
A live video stream of all round two games will be available through sandhillsexpress.com on the Sandhills Express You Tube channel and Sandhills Express Facebook page. The Broken Bow vs Minden game will also be broadcast live on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com
