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(Kelly Mills Photos)
The Britton U16 Teener baseball team bounced back from an opening loss and earned a spot in the title game of the Region 7B tournament being held in Britton.
In round-robin play on Monday Britton lost to Selby 8-4 but came back to eliminate Leola-Frederick 11-10 in the double elimination tourney. Selby stopped Leola-Frederick 11-1 in six innings in the other contest.
Britton battled unbeaten Selby in the championship game on Tuesday afternoon. A final game, if needed, was to be played Tuesday evening. Results will be published in next week’s Journal.
The regional champ advances to the South Dakota Class B VFW Teener Tournament set for Platte Aug. 9-11.
Selby 8
Britton 4
Selby led just 1-0 after four innings but tacked on three runs in the fifth and seventh frames for an 8-1 lead and then weathered a Britton rally in the bottom of the seventh.
Dylan Redler started on the mound for Britton and cruised through four innings, striking out nine, before running into trouble in the fifth. Jade Tisher, Kaden Mills, and Lofton Heer came on in relief. Selby’s X. Hobert went six innings and fanned 10.
The local nine out-hit Selby 8-6, led by Will Richter’s two singles. Redler doubled, and Mitchell Burger, Ben Folkman, Bryce Hawkinson, Heer, and Jace Rein each had singles.
Selby 100 031 3 – 8 6 3
Britton 000 000 4 – 4 8 1
X. Hobert, L. Fiedler (7), X. Ritter (7) and H. Hauge; Dylan Redler, Jade Tisher (5), Kaden Mills (6), Lofton Heer (7) and Colton Chapin
Britton 11
Leola-Frederick 10
Each team came up with a pair of four-run innings with Britton leading 11-10 after six and both clubs went scoreless in the final frame.
Leola-Frederick drew first blood in the bottom of the first but the local nine responded with four in the top of the second and never trailed again. Britton led 7-2 in the third but L-F counted with four tallies in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit to 7-6. Britton came right back with four more in the fourth and led 11-6 until L-F made it 11-10 with four more in the bottom of the sixth.
Britton as out-hit 10-7 but committed just one error in the field compared to three for L-F. Richter ripped a double and had three RBI’s for Coach Bill Bray’s crew. Bryce Heitkamp and Hawkinson added singles and knocked in a pair of runs each, and Folkman and Rein added safeties.
Burger started on the mound and fanned four batters, going two and two-thirds innings. Rein relieved in the third and went the rest of the way, striking out six and allowing just one walk.
Britton 043 400 0 – 11 7 1
L-F 114 004 0 – 10 10 3
Mitchell Burger, Jace Rein (3) and Colton Chapin; E. Losure, J. Holmes (5) and N. Kippley
