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Photo by James Parrish
North Platte's Trevor Johnson winds up for a pitch in the first game against Twin Cities.
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Photo by James Parrish
Jamie McKain takes a lead at second base in the first inning of game two.
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The North Platte First National Bank Seniors swept Twin Cities on Tuesday by scores of 12-4 and 5-4 at Bill Wood Field. In the first game, the Seniors won fairly convincingly and in the second, they had to scrap for eight innings to get the sweep. "I think we did pretty good," said Seniors coach Rick Ostergard. "We hit the ball well but there were those four innings (in the second game) where we didn't do anything." Twin Cities (21-14) began the day by scoring two runs off of Trevor Johnson in the top of the first inning. But in the bottom of the second, the First Nationals (15-11) came back to tie the game with RBIs by Jordan Enderle and Jared Webster. In the third, Twin Cities regained the lead when Beau Lofink drew a bases loaded walk from Johnson. But with two outs in the bottom half of the inning, North Platte started to get to Zephyr pitcher Juan Rios. Taylor Williams tied the game with a single to left field to tie the game at 3-3. Drew Beyer followed with another single to give the First Nationals the lead. Then on the next at-bat, Enderle doubled to right to make it 5-3 and finish the rally. In the fourth, North Platte scored three more runs and the margin went up to five runs. Both teams traded runs in the fifth and in the sixth, the Nationals scored the last three runs against Connor Wilburn, who came in for Fios at the beginning of the inning. Jamie McKain replaced Johnson in the top of the seventh and recorded the final three outs in order to give North Platte the game one victory. "In the first game, we came out flat," Ostergard said. "I was a little nervous after that first inning. But I thought we responded really well. We did a great job of hitting the ball and getting (Johnson) some cushion." North Platte seemed to pick up in the second game where it left off in the first. Luke Volz led off the bottom of the first with a single off of Dylon Busskohl and then Jack Kenny got on with a bunt single. Williams then brought both of them home with a two RBI single to make it 2-0. The Zephyrs got on the board in the top of the third, scoring on a wild pitch by Kade Folchert. But in the bottom half, the First Nationals got the run back by scoring on a Busskohl wild pitch. Williams then brought in another run on a one-out fielder's choice to make it 4-1 going into the fourth inning. In the fifth inning, Twin Cities came within two runs after Ty Wilson reached base on a fielding error by Folchert but the score remained 4-2 until the top of the seventh. With two outs in the seventh, Lofink scored the first of two runs the Zephyrs needed to stay alive by getting a single to center. Twin Cities then tied the game when a Folchert pitch got by the catcher, McKain. The game went into extra innings after Busskohl threw his fourth straight scoreless inning in the bottom of the seventh. For the second time in the day, McKain came on in relief and held the Zephyrs scoreless in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, Beyer and Nick Martinez came up with one-out base hits to get the First Nationals started. Enderle then singled to right and Ostergard sent Beyer to home plate. But the throw by Rios in right field was in time to get Beyer for the second out of the inning. But with Martinez at third, Webster hit a ground single into right to win the game and complete the sweep. Ostergard said that he wished his team would have made more plays before the game went into extra innings but he was pleased by how they were made in the eighth. "That last half-inning was the best thing that could happen to us," he said. "We had some kids who were untested and we needed to see what they were made of. Drew and Nick had two huge hits and although it was unfortunate that Drew got thrown out at home on a perfect throw, Webby got the clutch hit we needed."
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