Huron Junior Legion reaches championship bracket at state

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WATERTOWN - After dropping their first game on Thursday on a walk-off sacrifice fly to the top seed, the Huron Junior Legion has been on a mission, and the mission was completed Friday and Saturday with a pair of dominating victories that earned the Tigers a trip to Sunday’s championship bracket.

Friday afternoon, Huron defeated Sioux Falls West by the score of 12-1.

Huron pushed two runs across in the top of the first inning to take an early lead, and Sioux Falls responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning, but that would be the only runs the Tiger pitching would give up.

Huron’s offense scored in each of the first three innings before dumping on seven runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Kolby Hofer took the ball to open the game for Huron, tossing five innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits and two walks, striking out four. He was relieved by Bubba Peterson, who tossed a scoreless inning with a strikeout.

The Huron offense capitalized on four Sioux Falls errors, but also did plenty of work with nine hits, eight walks, and one hit batsman in the game.

Logan Leyendecker led the way for the Tigers with three base knocks and stole a base.

Trace Wenz stole a pair of bases and Hofer added a steal in the victory.

With the wild card spot for Sunday’s championship bracket on the line, the Huron squad broke out in the middle innings for a 6-1 victory over Watertown to clinch a Sunday spot.

Things didn’t look great out of the gate for Huron as Watertown put up a run in the first off Huron starter Jack Pedersen. That would be the only scoring until Huron put its first run on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Tigers would then add a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth and three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to clinch the 6-1 victory.

Pedersen went five strong innings, allowing one run on four hits and two walks, striking out five. Peterson relieved him and tossed two scoreless innings, striking out three.

Peterson was the only Tiger hitter with multiple hits, slapping a pair of singles and stealing a base.

Leyendecker and Kolten Ogle each had a double. Wenz, Brady Feenstra, and Leyendecker stole a base apiece in the win.

Huron takes a a 14-16 season record into Sunday’s championship bracket action, which will be in Tuesday’s paper.