Kimball Legion team continues to improve

After a little misunderstanding and some confusion Kimball and Alliance Legion teams were finally in the same town at the same time.

Kimball coaches thought the game was in Alliance and Alliance coaches were sure the game was in Kimball. After a couple phone calls between coaches, Alliance headed back home to match up with Kimball.

By the time the game got started it was already 7p.m., so it was decided that there would only be one game played on Thursday, June 22.

Our hometown boys lost the single game 12-5, but got through a full seven innings of play. Kimball came out strong and played well, but when the bats went cold for Kimball it was Alliance that kept the lead.

Thomas Muldoon was brought from the Babe Ruth league to play on Thursday, yet the team was missing Javon Coyle and Austin Lulf, so it took a little getting use to not having those normal players suiting up, according to Bernie, father of Brendan Walker.

Still a lot of acton came from the bats and several players made stole key bases early on in the game.

Brady Kilgore hit two singles, Ethan Bemis had one single and added three stolen bases, Colton Mielke put a single in the books. Brendan Walker hit two singles and Grant Hickman added a double.

Pitching from Kimball is looking better, Brady Kilgore pitched two innings, striking out two batters, while Walker pitched for three innings and added four strike outs. Mielke and Hickman also pitched an inning each.

Following the game in Alliance, the Kimball boys packed up and headed to Chadron for a tournament this past weekend for a total of three games.

The first team they saw was Saturday morning was, again, with a start time of 10 a.m. Once again the young Kimball team suffered a loss, with the final score 12-0 in Alliance's favor.

According to Bernie Walker, Alliance had a little different team than the guys faced just a few days before and the Alliance team really came out ready and all on the same page.

For Kimball's pitching in that first game, Austin Lulf pitched one inning and struck one batter out, Ethan Bemis pitched one inning and matched Lulf with one strike out, and Javon Coyle also pitched one inning.

Batting was Kimball's downfall against Alliance, with Brady Kilgore being the sole hitter to get on base. Kilgore had one single and one stolen base. According to Walker, Alliance's pitching was on point, "They pitched really good, they just shut us down."

Kimball faced Torrington in their second game of the tournament, and came up short with a 5-1 loss.

Brendan Walker pitched all seven innings against Torrington and came away with three strike outs.

Kimball was able to get a few more hits this game with Kilgore getting one single as well as a stolen base, Landon Heim had one single and stole one base as well and Ethan Bemis added one single to the books.

Walker added the pitching for both teams was really good.

The young ball players' best game played this weekend was on Sunday when they played an out-of-state team from Laramie, Wyo. The Kimball boys battled hard, but Laramie took the win 9-5.

There were three to pitch for the boys on Sunday, Kilgore pitched for three innings with two strike outs, Lulf threw for one inning and had one strike out, and Bemis added his arm for two innings and struck out two batters.

Bats heated up nicely to start this game with Kilgore getting one single and one stolen base, Bemis added two singles and two stolen bases, Nate Mars hit three singles and stole for two bases and Walker put two singles and two stolen bases in the books.

Grant Hickman added a single to Kimball's board, Colton Mielke was able to use his speed for a triple, Cole Hinton added two singles and four stolen bases and Landon Heim had one single for the books as well.

"This was a fun game and it got pretty competitive, the hits were better but they just came up short," said Walker.

Next on the schedule, Kimball will host Sidney today, Thursday, June 29, for a double header with games at 5 and 7, then will travel to Hershey for a tournament on Sunday, July 2, with games set for 12 and 4.