FIVE YEARS AGO
(2008)

Building an early lead proved to be too much for Central City, as their late inning heroics fell short against the Mighty Lexington Seniors who picked up the 12-10 victory. The Orange and Blacknine had built up a 7-1 lead in the second inning of play. Lexington led 9-3 in the third inning before Central City posted five runs in the sixth inning to knot the score at 9-9. Answering the rally, Armando Hernandez, Joe Berke and Stuart Long all scored in the bottom of the sixth to ice the Orange Crush victory.

10 YEARS AGO
(2003)

Chase Hallsted hurled a complete game four-hitter as the Gothenburg seniors scored a 9-2 win over Shelton-Gibbon at Gothenburg. Hallsted retired the visitors in order in four of the seven innings. He walked nobody and struck out 10 hitters. Gothenburg had seven hits in the game. Hallsted had a huge game at the plate with two doubles and a homerun to drive in five runs.

15 YEARS AGO
(1998)

The Cozad Juniors finally got on the winning side of the ledger, defeating Broken Bow at home, 16-10. However, the Juniors lost games against BerMis and McCook over the last three games. Cozad lost to BerMis, 12-2. Lead-off hitter Joey Cochran scored a solo run in the first inning, while Jose Calvillo scored a single run in the bottom of the fourth. Cozad logged 5 hits to BerMis’ 11. Cochran, Jeff Brecks, Josh Neill, Luke Johnson and Josh Cover collected 1 hit each. Cozad hosted Broken Bow in baseball action. Cozad scored 10 runs in the first two innings and went on to defeat Broken Bow, 15-10. Tom Lucas led Cozad with 4 hits and scored 2 turns, as did Jose Calvillo. Jeff Brecks logged the win for Cozad.

It wasn’t a real positive experience for Lexington at the McCook Tournament. Lex went 1 and 2, defeating Springfield, but losing to Holdrege and McCook. Lex cruised past Springfield, 21-1. A 12-run fifth inning provided the huge margin of victory. Leading the way was Paul Saville collecting 4 hits and 4 RBI and Matt Gonzalez had 4 hits while scoring 3 runs. Ben Damme posted the win, giving up 6 hits and striking out 7 batters. Lex lost a heartbreaker to Holdrege in the second game of the tournament, 11-7. Holdrege put together a 7-run fourth inning and added a solo run in the sixth to put the game out of Lexington’s reach. The final game of  the tournament, Lex was humbled by McCook, 25-5.

20 YEARS AGO
(1993)

Robert Young walked, then scored on a fielder’s choice play as Cozad skimmed past Kearney’s Bluejays in Junior baseball, 17-16. Young’s decisive run broke a ‘see-saw’ struggle which had prevailed throughout all nine innings. A five run surge by Cozad in the bottom of the seventh sent the game into baseball’s version of overtime. Singles were hit by Chris Horstman, Joel Rourke and a double from Cory Barnes were big factors in the seventh inning rally by Cozad. Horstman, Rourke, Young, Jason Rourke and Barnes all scored before the fireworks concluded.

25 YEARS AGO
(1988)

Lexington juniors had one of its most satisfying wins when the Minutemen defeated McCook 15-5 at Elbert H. Smith Field in Lexington. Coach Ron Stewart said the win was satisfying because McCook has become a recent rival of Lexington. He said the win also left the Minutemen feeling good because they scored 15 runs against a decent McCook pitching staff. The big blow in the contest occurred in the second inning when Brad Norden hit a grand slam. That hit broke open a 2-1 contest and gave Lex a 6-1 lead. More big hits in the fourth inning were a triple by Jim Long, doubles by Troy Higgins and Scott VerMass and a single by Brett Norden.

30 YEARS AGO
(1983)

Lexington had to rally from behind to down the Dusters of Holdrege in Junior Legion baseball. Trailing 3-1 after two and a half innings the Minutemen scored four runs in the next three innings to win the game 5-3. Lex scored one run in the first inning, but then fell behind when Holdrege scored twice in the second inning and once in the third stanza. The Minutemen scored a run in the bottom of the third and two in the fourth to take the lead at 4-3. An insurance run was added on in the bottom of the fifth. Tim Branstiter got the win for the Minutemen going the distance on the hill. He gave up three runs on three hits while striking out 11 hitters.