HASTINGS-The North Platte First National Bank Seniors could only muster three hits against Hastings on Saturday in the first elimination game in the district tournament and the First Nationals fell 5-1 to see their season end.

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The North Platte Seniors end the season at .500 with a record of 24-24.

"We didn't hit enough and we didn't bring enough runs across," said Seniors coach Rick Ostergard. "I feel bad for those guys to go out like that."

Hastings pitcher Ryan Bender gave himself some run support right away in the first inning by scoring the first run of the game on an RBI single to center.

North Platte tied the game in the bottom of the second inning when Jared Webster hit a one-out single. But it turned out to be the last run the First Nationals would score.

In the top of the third inning, Hastings regained the lead when Matt Karloff hit a two-out triple to right against Kade Folchert. Then after Karloff's triple, Kyle Goldenstein followed with a single to center to make it 3-1.

After going up by two runs, Hastings scored a pair of runs in the fourth on RBIs by Patrick Opperman and Karloff to build a four-run lead.

Trevor Johnson relieved Folchert in the top of the fifth inning and the Western Nebraska Community College pitching recruit threw five scoreless innings for North Platte.

But it didn't matter as the Nationals just couldn't get going against Bender, who threw all nine innings to get the win for Hastings.

Ostergard said that it was a tough way to end for his team but throughout the ups and downs of the season, it always competed hard and that's what mattered most.

"We started out really good and then we had a slow middle part of the season and we started to play better (before districts)," said Ostergard. "The battled every game and they never gave up. That's all you can ask for as a coach."