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The Britton U14 baseball team battled back from a disappointing semifinal loss to take third place at the state tournament held in Garretson last weekend.
The local nine rolled past Baltic in opening round play 13-3 in six innings, lost to Freeman-Marion 11-1 in six, and downed Clark 7-2 in the third place contest.
The squad was also honored with the William Radigan Sportsmanship Award given to one state tournament team.
“The U14 boys had a great state tournament and a fantastic season,” said its coaching staff. “We went down with a goal to win state and came up short. Freeman-Marion was the better team on Saturday, and we want to congratulate them for winning it all.
“Losing is a part of sports and life,” added the local coaches. “How you bounce back is most important. The coaching staff is so very proud of how hard the boys played on Sunday during the thrid place game vs. Clark. Thank you boys, for allowing us to coach you.”
Britton 13
Baltic 3
Britton wiped out a 3-1 deficit with six runs in the top of the third inning and blanked Baltic the rest of the way, taking advantage of seven errors and committing just one miscue.
Drew Hetimann pitched the first five innings, fanning seven batters and walking just one. Mitchell Burger hurled the final frame and struck out two.
Nathan Folkman doubled and singled and knocked in a pair of runs, Lofton Heer added a pair of safeties, Ben Suther doubled and had two RBI’s, Burger and
Chaz Vietor both singled and knocked in two runs, and Lincoln Kilker added a base hit.
Britton 106 312 – 13 8 1
Baltic 300 000 – 3 7 7
Drew Hetimann, Mitchell Burger (6) and Colton Chapin; G. Skotvold, B. Hansen (5), A. Groenwald (6) and Groenwald
