Titan seniors season ends in Area 1 Tournament

The season came to an end, Saturday, for the Tri-County Titan seniors after they were eliminated from area tournament play.

First round

The 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.

Second round

On July 27th Tri-County lost its second game in the Class C Area 1 Tournament, ending the 2024 American Legion Baseball season.

The No. 1 seed Hartington proved to be too much as they defeated the Titans by a score of 9-1.

Shabram took to the mound, throwing four innings allowing seven runs on six hits, two walks, five errors, and one home run, while striking out six batters.

Schroeder pitched the final inning, allowing two runs on two hits and one walk.

Coach Shabram said Tri-County started out strong in the first inning, getting the first three batters on base, but were not able to score any as the bases were left loaded.

"Offensively this was the case for much of the game ... leaving runners in scoring position while the solid hits were fielded by the smooth gloves of Hartington," the coach said.

Thomson had the lone run of the game in the fifth inning, scoring on a Rifer RBI double.

Meanwhile, Shabram also had a strong start to the game, striking out the side in the first two innings, but then Hartington's bats came alive and continued to put pressure on the Titan defense.

"We needed a clean game in all four phases – pitching, fielding, hitting, and base running – in order to keep a game like this competitive.

Tri-County game stats:

Thomson: 2-3 batting, 1 run, 2 stolen bases.

Shabram: 2-3 batting, 1 stolen base.

Rifer: 2-2 batting, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 stolen base.

Hobbs: 0-3 batting.

Nelson: 1-1 batting, 1 BB.

Pavlik: 0-2 batting.

Hoferer: 0-2 batting.

Schroeder: 0-2 batting.

Bauer: 0-2 batting.