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Millard West team earns win against Elkhorn team to advance to legion state championship

By OWH, 08/02/18, 7:45AM CDT

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Roof Tech applied lessons learned from a five-day tournament in Minneapolis to complete its run Wednesday through the Class A American Division Legion state tournament.

The team from Millard West scored three runs in the first inning, lost the lead by the end of the frame and took it back for good in the  second en route to an 8-5 victory over OrthoNebraska (Elkhorn).

Now Roof Tech (42-8) will play National Division champion C&H Construction at Millard West at 1 p.m. Saturday for the Class A Legion state championship. Both teams will advance to the Central Plains Regional that begins Aug. 8 in Dickinson, North Dakota.

Roof Tech coach Steve Frey said winning the 96-team Gopher Classic last month — when the team had to play five consecutive days — helped steel the team for this postseason.

“We’ve played one of the teams that will be up there, and we were in regionals two years ago,” Frey said. “We’re confident we can play with any of those teams up there.”

Dawson Beutler earned the victory and Max Anderson picked up the save. OrthoNebraska outhit Roof Tech 9-7 but also committed four errors to finish the summer with a 24-25 record.

“Overall, we’re extremely young and we came in with no one expecting us to do anything as the host team,” OrthoNebraska coach Kyle McCright said. “We got a lot of confidence out of this tournament, and it was a big building block for us.”

Brenden Tauber ripped a leadoff double for Roof Tech in the top of the first and scored on the next pitch as Paul Hinton drove him home with a double to left. Hinton then stole third base and scored on a groundout .

Jackson Wright reached on an error, then moved to third on Tyler Bandiera’s single. Roof Tech scored again via an infield out when Wright raced home on a grounder by Tristan Gomes.

Despite the shaky start, Ortho didn’t flinch. Back-to-back singles by Mitch Kahre and Aiden Young led off the bottom of the first, followed by a walk to Parker Gutschow that loaded the bases for starting pitcher Drew Christo.

The son of former Nebraska quarterback Monte Christo laced a 1-0 pitch to right field for a two-run single. Kyler Beekman’s single to second base drove in Gutschow and tied the game 3-3. Christo is one of three regular starters who were freshmen this season.

Christo scored on a sacrifice fly by Parker Lange to put OrthoNebraska ahead 4-3 .

Roof Tech regained the lead in the  second when Anderson stroked a two-run double, bringing in Garrett Kennedy and Hinton, who both reached with a walk.

Roof Tech added two runs in the  fourth inning. Jackson Meier led off with a single before moving to third on a double by Kennedy.

Meier scored when a ball hit by Tauber bounced out of the glove of Christo, who moved from pitcher to right field, after his hand landed on the field. Hinton hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Kennedy for a 7-4 lead.

“Some of our guys came up with big hits again at key times,” Frey said. “The guys have done a good job when we needed a play, especially in the field.”

Ortho cut its deficit to two in the bottom of the fifth when Young scored on a passed ball. Roof Tech got that run back in the top of the sixth when Kennedy walked, stole second, reached third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.

Roof Tech (42-8)....................320 201 0—8 7 1

OrthoNebraska (24-25)...........400 010 0—5 9 4

W: Dawson Beutler. L: Drew Christo. 2B: RT, Brenden Tauber, Paul Hinton, Max Anderson, Garrett Kennedy. O, Malakai Vetock. Att.: 550.