Longhorns finish second home tourney

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
It finally felt like summer last week, and the Newcastle Longhorns took advantage of the warmer temps to play some baseball. The squad started off their week on Thursday as they headed to Sturgis for a contest and then wrapped things up by hosting a two-day tournament. When the dust settled, the team had a 2-2 record and a second place finish to show for their efforts.
The Longhorns faced a daunting challenge on Thursday against Sturgis which head coach Alex Schaneman claimed was the best team his squad has played so far this year. Though Newcastle ended up short 2-7 in the contest, Schaneman wasn’t displeased with how the boys played.
“Considering the roster we had available, we played a pretty solid game,” he nodded. “We started with 11 players and finished with only 10, and some of our top players were not in the mix as well.”
Peyton Tystad started the game on the mound, but after hurting his knee in Gillette last week, he didn’t last long in that position, as Schaneman was forced to move him to first base.
“If Peyton isn’t pitching, he usually plays shortstop,” Schaneman explained. “However, he couldn’t move well enough to play there so we put him at first where he did a great job.”
Tystad’s situation created a ripple effect as other players were shuffled about to accommodate the change. Zach Purviance went in to pitch the remainder of the game, and Cam Williams - the team’s utility player - moved to shortstop for the first time ever.
“Zach did a good job on the mound and kept his pitch count relatively low. He did give up four or five runs over the remaining five innings, but not all of those were earned,” Schaneman began. “Cam played really admirably in his new role at shortstop and he was the only one to get a hit on the day.”
Despite only getting the one base hit, the Longhorns were able to score two runs due to Sturgis struggling a little and walking in a couple of runners.
Newcastle turned things around in their first game of the tournament on Saturday, defeating the Gillette JV team 14-3. Nolan Turner got the call to take the hill in this contest, and would remain there for
the duration.
“This was Nolan’s first time pitching and he did a great job, not giving up many hits on
the day,” Schaneman smiled. “We also hit the ball really well that game so it was just a really fun win.”
Though Newcastle was scheduled to play two games in Saturday’s pool play matchups, a no-show by Casper resulted in their second contest being cancelled. As such, the Longhorns’ next competition was against Buffalo on Sunday in bracket play.
Despite a terrible start of 0-7 by the second inning, the squad started to chip away at Buffalo’s lead, getting one or two runs back each inning. However, the team found themselves in the bottom of the fifth inning still behind 4-7 with the Johnson County team up to bat.
“We almost ran out of time due to the time limit,” Schaneman exclaimed. “The rule is that when time is up, you are only allowed to finish the inning you are in, so we needed to get into the sixth to give ourselves a chance. We turned a double play in the fifth on a pop fly to center field. Dylan Talley caught it and threw a kid out at first base which was a great play that really changed the momentum.”
The Longhorns found the sweet spot in the top of the sixth racking up 15 runs before retiring to the field.
“The kids went crazy and we ran through the lineup twice which made it a pretty easy win then,” Schaneman chuckled. “But it was a nerve-racking game up to that point because we made five errors in the first and they were hitting the ball which didn’t help.”
Schaneman had to use three pitchers in the contest starting with Josh Stevens who was replaced by Purviance, and then Sawyer Roberson came in to finish things off.
“I could tell there was something wrong with Josh right away. His arm was hurting and he just wasn’t throwing like himself, so I moved him to second base and put Zach in for three innings,” Schaneman explained. “Then Big Sawyer came in to throw the last two innings. He’s our cleaner, our closer, and our hard thrower who comes in as a relief pitcher to strike people out. He didn’t give up anything and that’s what kept us in the game.”
The final of the contest was 19-7 in the Longhorns’ favor which put them in the Championship contest against Gillette’s varsity squad. After losing to them the weekend prior, Schaneman and his crew were looking to even the score.
Unfortunately, another slow start put the Longhorns in a hole too deep to crawl out of by the end of seven innings. Too many errors early on combined with perfect play on the part of Gillette resulted in Newcastle losing the contest 1-7.
“They were hitting the ball really well and they made every play. Every ball we hit to them, they fielded and then made perfect throws to the base,” Schaneman stated. “They are just really solid and we didn’t hit at all. We only scored one run when we had several opportunities to bring runners across. Against those good teams, you have to have timely hitting and we didn’t have that.”
Once again, Newcastle finished out the game much stronger than they started, holding Gillette to no runs in the final three innings of play. Unfortunately, they were unable to get any more of their own so had to settle for second place.
“It was disappointing to lose to Gillette again, but we will get a couple more shots this season to get that done,” Schaneman declared. “We need to work on cutting down the errors we are making early on and also cut down those mental mistakes. It’s still early because even though it’s June, we’ve only played 10 games which is only about a third of those we had scheduled.”
This week the Longhorns will travel to Buffalo for a 9-inning game on Wednesday, and then go to Dickinson, ND on Saturday and Sunday where they will play two double-headers against their Legion teams.
“It’s not every day that we get to go to North Dakota to play someone so that’s pretty cool,” Schaneman grinned. “Legion teams are usually better than Babe Ruth squads so it’s great competition for us. They may even stop in and play us here in the third week of June which would be awesome.”