Three Cornbelt Teams Advance in State Tournament

Day Three of the Class B Amateur State Tournament featured a quadruple header for the Cornbelt league, with three of the Cornbelt teams advancing in the tournament.

In the first game of the day, the Canova Gang took on the Tabor BlueBirds, and Tabor wasted no time getting on the scoreboard against the Cornbelt runner-up, getting one run in each of the first two innings. The Gang struggled to get hits throughout the game, only getting three hits off of Blue Birds pitcher Riley Rothschadl through seven-innings. 

Canova got their first run of the game in the bottom of the eighth on Garrett Gassman’s RBI Single into right field, and then he drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth, sending the game into extra innings. The Gang completed the comeback on Tim Gassman’s walk-off Single in the bottom of the tenth, giving Canova the 3-2 win over Tabor. 

For the Lennox Alpacas, they had hopes of being able to get revenge against the Canova Gang, who knocked them out of the Cornbelt District tournament, however they first had to get through the Wynot Expos. The Expos got the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth, with the Alpacas answering with three of their own in the fifth, two of which were home runs. 

Wynot regained the lead in the bottom of the seventh with one home run and another run. In the ninth inning though, Lennox proved to be too much, with Corey Vasquez hitting a two-run homer, while scoring two more runs, getting the 7-4 win, and moving on to play Canova on Monday. 

The Salem Cubs, who got into the state tournament winning the “Last Chance” game in the Cornbelt District tournament got the 5-4 win over Four Corners in another close game for the Cornbelt league on Friday. They scored two runs in the first, with Four Corners answering with a run in the bottom of the first.

A deep shot to left from Noah Hainy tied the game at 2-2, but tying the Cubs would be the best they could get, as the two exchanged two more scored before Salem scored the game winning off of Cole Cheeseman’s RBI Single bringing in Tyler Cleveland to win the game 5-4.

The Cornbelt District Champions, Humboldt-Hartford Gamecocks, did not have the same success as the other Cornbelt teams in the state tournament, getting shut out in seven-innings by the Dimmock/Emery Raptors. A three-run homer from Sam Arend broke the game open in the top of the fourth, leaving the inning with a 5-0 lead.

A 3 RBI Triple in the fifth, again from Arend, continued the domination, and with two more runs in the sixth the Raptors grabbed a 13-0 win in seven-innings over the Gamecocks, who struggled to get anything going, only getting four hits in the game.