Day One Recap of B1 Senior Legion Baseball Action in Nebraska City

NEBRASKA CITY, NE - The opening contest in the 2023 B1 Senior Legion Baseball Tournament saw a mild upset as the four-seed of Auburn was knocked off by five-seed Fairbury, 5-4. The Landsharks' Blayne Schelbitzki went the distance, allowing the four runs on five hits while striking out seven and avoiding any walks. Schelbitzki kept Auburn silent in the hit column until there were two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Travon Shaw took the loss, giving up a pair of runs in the second inning. Shaw surrendered five hits and hit four batters in 2.2 innings of work. Caleb Fossenbarger threw the next 4.1 innings and kept things close, but Auburn's offense couldn't quite come through. Fossenbarger ended up 2/4 with two runs on offense, while Fairbury was led by Brendon Runge's 2/3 performance that included a home run, a double, an RBI, and two driven in.

In game two, second-seeded Beatrice had little problem advancing past Crete in a 10-2 romp. Beatrice put seven runs on the board in the top of the first and never looked back. 

Day one of the tournament concluded with the host team drawing a Hickman squad that had knocked them off 9-4 in the regular season. Despite coming in as the six-seed, Hickman had Nebraska City's number again, getting a 2-0 win as Collier Hestermann threw a no-hitter. The Washburn commit struck out eight, while NC's Keston Holman was stuck with a loss in a game he pitched beautifully. Holman went six innings and whiffed 13 while allowing three hits. The two runs scored in the top of the first on a hit and a costly error.