On Tuesday night the Alliance Peltz Co junior team traveled to Scottsbluff to take on the Westco Express squad. The Spartans would rally in the late innings but it wasn’t enough. Scottsbluff scored 7 runs in the opening 2 inning to down Alliance 9 to 4. The Express pounded out 15 and used 4 errors by the Spartans to go on for the victory.
Pitching for the Peltz Co were starter Nason Thompson and Kegan Nelson. Thompson went one inning, giving up 2 earned runs on 2 Express hits while striking out one. Nelson was credited with 5 strikeouts in his 5 innings of work. At the plate Spartan outfielder Jackson Smith led Alliance with 2 hits while registering one hit each were: Kobe Strom, Carver Nemnich, and Jackson Martinez.
Westco scored first with one run in bottom of the first. Things then went from bad to worse in the bottom of inning #2. Scottsbluff plated 6 runs on five hits, 2 errors by the Spartans, a walk, and a wild pitch that scored an Express run. After 2 innings of play, the Peltz Co trailed 7 to 0.
Both teams failed to score in the third and fourth frames and the game went to the fifth with the Bluffs still ahead by 7. The momentum then went to the side of the Spartans in the top of the fifth. Hits by Martinez, Strom, Nemnich, and Smith put 3 Alliance runs in the scorebook and sliced the Spartan deficit to 4 at 7 to 3. Four Express hits plus 2 errors by Alliance swung the momentum back to Scottsbluff in the bottom of inning #5. In all the Express would tally 2 more that increased their lead to 9 to 3 after five innings of action. No runs were recorded in the sixth and the game moved to the seventh with Alliance still trailing by 6.
A one out double by Smith gave the Peltz Co hope in their final at bat. Smith would score on an error by the hosts that cut the Scottsbluff lead to 5. A fly ball with the bases loaded finished off the Spartan rally with the Westco team winning the contest 9 to 4
ALL 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 4
SB 1 6 0 0 2 0 x 9
Pitching for Alliance Thompson Nelson 5 hits for Alliance 2 from Smith one each Nemnich Strom Martinez