The Abilene Rebels 16-18 year-olds baseball team competed in Chapman Wood Bat Tournament in Chapman last Thursday through Saturday. On Thursday, the Rebels went 1-1 in pool play, defeating Chapman 3-0 and losing to Riley County 10-4 in playing back-to-back games. On Saturday, Abilene played St. Mary’s and lost 3-2 in a game that was a hard-fought, emotional contest.
In the opener on Thursday against Chapman, the Rebels got an early lead and didn’t look back. Abilene, as the visitor, got on the scoreboard first as Noah Wildman walked, Hunter Combes sacrificed, and Wyatt Youtsey doubled to drive in Wildman for the early 1-0 lead. Chapman would get a couple of base runners in their first at-bat via walks but they would be stranded. Abilene would score again in their half of the third inning as Trenton Jurgensen singled, Wildman sacrificed, Youtsey was intentionally walked, Tate Berry walked, and Trey Hoerner doubled to drive in two runs for the 3-0 lead.
Chapman had some good scoring opportunities a couple of times in the game but Abilene was able to get out of those situations defensively. The three runs would hold up as the Rebels got some good pitching down the stretch out of starter Hunter Combes as he would strike out three of the final four Chapman batters in their last at-bat in the fifth inning.
“We were decent at the plate in this game, only striking out three times, and we hit the ball but just didn’t get many actual hits,” said Abilene coach Billy Hansen. “We were good enough defensively to have the three runs hold up, but we need to find some more offense,” Hansen continued.
On the mound for Abilene, Combes went the distance striking out 10, allowed three hits, three walks, and no earned runs in the five-inning game. Offensively for the Rebels, Youtsey went 1-2 with a run scored, a walk, and an RBI, Hoerner was 1-2 with two RBI, Glen Friederich was 1-1, and Jurgensen went 1-3 with a run scored.
The Rebels would play Riley County right after finishing up with Chapman and got off to a good start. Abilene would get an early lead in the bottom of the second inning as Hoerner singled and then Cade Mills doubled to the left field wall to drive in Hoerner. Friederich then singled to drive in Mills and Riley Sleichter followed that up with a single but he would be stranded for the early 2-0 lead. Riley County though would come up in their half of the inning and tie the game on two hits and a hit batter.
Riley County would have a big fourth inning thanks in part to a strange play and controversial call that would go against Abilene. With one out, Riley County would get a single, fielder’s choice, and a walk. Then things got interesting on a ball that was hit in the air to shallow right field. On that hit, Rebel right-fielder Wildman charged hard and attempted to catch the ball close to the ground. The ball would hit towards the bottom of the palm of Wildman’s glove and as he went to the ground the ball appeared to bounce off of his thigh into the air and second baseman Friederich caught the ball. Abilene appeared to make a double-play after the catch but the field umpire signaled that the ball in right field hit the ground. Coach Hansen would argue the call but the call stood. Riley County would go on to score six runs in the inning and lead 8-2. The Rebels would be able to get a run in their half of the fourth inning as Mills reached safely on a dropped third strike and later scored on a single by Jurgensen to make the score 8-3.
In the fifth and final inning, Riley County padded their lead with two more runs on a walk, a single, and a couple of balks. In Abilene’s half of the fifth inning, they were able to get another run as Youtsey singled and later scored on a fielder’s choice by Mills but that would be it and the final would be 10-4 in favor of Riley County.
“We weren’t able to rebound after that call in the fourth inning didn’t go our way… not saying that we would have won the game but it sure did affect us mentally and we had a tough time moving on from that,” said Hansen. “I told the kids that that is baseball and things like that happen and you have to move on, but we really didn’t and we stranded a lot of base runners too,” Hansen continued.
Offensively for Abilene, Mills was 1-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, Youtsey and Hoerner both went 1-2 with a run scored and a walk, Friederich and Jurgensen were both 1-2 with a walk and an RBI, and Sleichter went 1-1 with a walk. On the mound for the Rebels, Jurgensen went the distance striking out one, walked four, hit a batter, allowed seven hits, and nine earned runs.
On Saturday, Abilene would play St. Mary’s in a noon game matchup for the right to play in the championship game. The Rebels would be the home team and that would come into play. St. Mary’s, it would seem, would get off to a quick start in the game but it was actually more of Abilene starting slowly defensively. In their first at-bat, St. Mary’s would score three runs on two walks, two stolen bases, and two errors… that would be all the runs St. Mary’s would get the rest of the game. Abilene would fight all game for what would be not much on the scoreboard as they would have three reach base in the first inning and strand two.
That theme would continue unfortunately for the Rebels. In the second inning, they would get a single from Keaton Hocker, who was filling in on the team due to being a little short-handed for various reason, and that would be followed-up by a single from Friederich but they would both be stranded. The third inning would see Abilene go down in order. In the fourth inning, Mills would single and Jovanny Garcia would sacrifice but Mills would be stranded at second base. After that first inning, Riley County went three-up-three-down in every inning except the second inning when they sent four to the plate.
The fifth inning saw the Rebels finally get on the scoreboard after Friederich walked, Jurgensen reached on a fielder’s choice, Wildman doubled, and Youtsey reached on an error to score Jurgensen to make the score 3-1. Abilene would continue to battle in the sixth inning as Mills singled and stole second and third base. Then a big play in the game happened with one out when Hocker singled to shallow right-center and the ball was thrown into the catcher. Hocker was attempting to advance from first to second on that throw and the catcher threw down to second and Hocker was called out. It appeared that Hocker’s lead foot touched the bag before the tag was made high on Hocker. Coach Hansen immediately ran from his third base coaching box to challenge the call with base umpire, but to no avail. It ended up being a big call in the game because the pitcher threw a wild pitch and the catcher had a passed ball on the next batter before the third out was made.
Abilene came back up in the bottom of the seventh inning with a chance to, at least, tie or win the game. With two out and a full count on Hoerner the umpire called a third strike, that appeared to be high and outside, to end the game with Abilene number four hole hitter, Youtsey, waiting in the on-deck circle.
“We were good defensively after the first inning but couldn’t get any runs across the plate offensively until later in the game,” Hansen said. “We had a lot of unhappy people at the end of this game after what transpired but the bottom line is that we didn’t score enough runs when we had opportunities. Tate settled down on the mound after that first inning but we just couldn’t get him any run support, but it was good to see the bottom of our lineup produce again,” Hansen continued.
On the mound for Abilene, Berry went the distance striking out six, walked two, allowed four hits, and one earned run. Offensively for the Rebels, Mills was 2-3 with a run scored, and two stolen bases, Hocker went 2-3 with an RBI, and Friederich was 1-2 with a walk.
“I would like to thank Hunter Combes, Colton Mills, Wyatt Youtsey and Tim Mateer and their parents for their participation and support in their years with the Abilene Baseball Club and I wish them all the best in the future. It was my pleasure to be able to coach these fine young men,” said Hansen.
Abilene, 8-7, is likely done playing for this season. A season that lasted a little longer than usual but saw them play a lot less games due to rainouts and cancellations.