Titans fall to Crofton in first round of Area Legion Tourney

The Tri-County Titan seniors opened postseason play Friday, July 26, in Crofton for the Class C Area 1 district tournament. First-round action matched the senior Titans against Crofton, who won the game, 8-0.

Ryan Rifer was the starting pitcher, throwing four innings, allowing five runs on seven hits, five walks, two batters hit by pitch and three errors. Rifer struck out six Crofton batters.

Wyatt Shabram came in relief to throw one and one-third innings, allowing one run on one hit, one walk and one error, with three strikeouts.

Jake Schroeder was the next Titan pitcher to enter and threw one-third inning, allowing two runs on two hits.

Titans Coach Jeff Shabram said, "The very solid Crofton team scored three runs in the first inning and three runs in the sixth inning, but strong Titan pitching and timely defense held the Crofton bats to just one run in each of the third and fourth innings."

Tri-County's bats were making contact the entire game, even some solid hits, but the Crofton defense was positioned just perfectly to make the outs.

Tri-County game stats:

Connor Thomson: 0-3 batting.

Shabram: 1-3 batting.

Rifer: 2-3 batting.

A.J. Hobbs: 0-3 batting.

Landon Nelson: 1-2 batting.

Isaac Pavlik: 1-2 batting.

Max Bruce: 0-2 batting.

Schroeder: 1-1 batting, 1 HBP, 1 stolen base.

Riley Saul: 0-2 batting.

Next up for Tri-County in the Area 1 Tournament, at Crofton, will be Hartington on Saturday, July 27. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. Hartington is the No. 1 seed and won their first-round game against Stanton by a score of 16-1.