Gering defeats Ogallala 12-9 in Senior Legion Baseball on Sunday, June 29th, 2025

(Photo Credit: "Baseball Glove", Images in Media from Wix on Wix.com)

By: Evan Troxel

The Gering Platte Valley Companies Senior Legion Baseball team defeated the Ogallala Adams Bank & Trust Seniors 12-9 on Sunday afternoon, June 29th, 2025, at the Ogallala American Legion Field in Ogallala, Nebraska.

Ogallala put the ball into play for first 10 batters of the bottom of the fifth inning. They recorded eight hits in that time span.

So it will be interesting to find out and see if Ogallala can put the hits together anytime in any future games and especially for what appears to be their home finale this season (as far as I know) on Monday, July 7th, 2025, against nearby opponent Sidney.

So maybe Ogallala will get a lot more hits if a lot of people actually show up for that game!

Gering led 2-0 after half an inning and 8-0 after 3 1/2 innings.

Ogallala then got the bats rolling in the bottom of the fifth by scoring seven runs to avoid getting mercy-ruled if they wouldn't have scored at all in that inning.

Ogallala then tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 9-8 lead.

Gering then busted through four runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 12-9 lead.

Ogallala's then couldn't score in the bottom of the seventh and they lost 12-9.

Greyor Hinton had the most hits for Gering with three including a double and he also scored two runs.

Bo Gable had two hits, including a triple, and he scored three runs and had two RBI's. Kelan Dunn also scored three runs and two hits, including a double, but he had just one RBI.

Che Molina had two singles, scored zero runs, but did have four RBI's which was a team high on Sunday afternoon.

For Ogallala, the top scorers were Jonah Saner and Blake Robb.

Jonah recorded three singles and had one RBI. Robb on the other had a single and an RBI.

Jessie Ortega recorded the most RBI's (3) and the most hits (3) for Ogallala as he doubled twice and singled once. He scored one run and he was the only Ogallala player not to be put out on Sunday.

In the top of the first inning, Gering's Kelan Dunn singled and stole second base. He then scored on a Bo Gable triple and Gable scored on a Che Molina RBI groundout to shortstop.

Gering led 2-0 at that point of the game.

In the bottom of the first, Ogallala's Markell Macke hit a line drive single to left field and then he was put out by Gering second baseman Greyor Henton on a 5-4-3 double play groundout by Ogallala's Blake Robb.

In the top of the second, Gering's Greyor Henton walked and Dawson Elsen was hit by pitch and those players advanced to third and second respectively on a flyout to center field.

Isaiah Murillo also flied out to center fielder Daniel Dowdy to end the inning.

Ogallala's Jessie Ortega hit a double in the bottom of the second and then Tai Le advanced him to third on a sacrifice bunt to the first baseman Colter Shellito who threw to second baseman Greyor Henton to complete the out at first base.

Ogallala then failed to score as Keegan Florom hit a ground ball to third baseman Che Molina and the ball was hit so hard to Molina Ortega was unable to try an attempt for home plate to score.

Lou Menotti then struck out swinging for Ogallala.

In the top of the third inning, Ogallala's center fielder Daniel Dowdy made a third consecutive putout to rob Kelan Dunn of a hit and then Bo Gable also hit a ball to center for the second out of the inning.

Ogallala first baseman Markell Macke then fielded a grounder from Gering's Che Molina and took the ball to first base to complete the top half of the inning.

In the bottom of the third Ogallala's Preston Runge popped out to the shortstop and Jonah Saner popped out to the pitcher and Jackson Saner flied out to the right fielder.

In the top of the fourth, Colter Shellito singled, Rece Knight walked and Greyor Henton singled.

Dawson Elsen popped up to starting pitcher Jackson Saner and Caleb Swisher flied out to left fielder Keegan Florom.

Two outs.

During Isaiah Murillo's at bat, Colter Shellito then scored on a wild pitch by Ogallala's Jackson Saner and Ogallala catcher Jessie Ortega thought Saner was going to throw a different pitch on a play Ortega and Saner clearly were not on the same page.

If Ortega somehow could have stopped that wild pitch, Gering might not have scored any runs at all in the fourth inning.

Instead, Rece Knight and Greyor Henton scored on Isaiah Murillo's single to give Gering a 5-0 lead.

Murillo advanced to second base on the throw home to try to get Henton out.

Then, Kelan Dunn doubled and Isaiah Murillo scored.

Bo Gable then got hit by a pitch and Che Molina came through again with a single to right field which resulted in two more RBI's scoring Kelan Dunn and Bo Gable.

Gering led 7-0 at that point with runners on the corners.

Ogallala catcher Jessie Ortega then tried to pick off Che Molina from first base and it backfired as Bo Gable stole home and scored to give Gering an 8-0 lead.

Ogallala's shortstop Tai Le then made a fielding error and if I am not mistaken he had time to make a play at second base but instead made a poor throw to first base.

Fortunately, Ogallala's first baseman Markell Macke snatched it and Jackson Saner struck out the next batter to end the six-run inning for Gering.

The lone highlight for Ogallala in the bottom of the fourth with two outs was a line drive single to center field by Jessie Ortega.

In the top of the fifth, Dawson Elsen hit a single to left field.

Caleb Swisher popped up to the first baseman Markell Macke in foul territory.

Elsen then stole second base, Isaiah Murillo popped out to the center fielder Daniel Dowdy and then Kelan Dunn flied out to right fielder Preston Runge.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Ogallala decided to tack on some runs with Gering leading 8-0.

Ogallala I believe only needed one run to force the game to go to the sixth inning to avoid the eight-run mercy rule after five innings.

Ogallala's Keegan Florom grounded out to shortstop Bo Gable to first baseman Colter Shellito to start the inning.

Lou Menotti then hit a double off the right field fence.

Levi Nolt then hit a ground ball to the third baseman Che Molina who didn't field the ball the best and then decided to go tag Lou Menotti who was heading to third base and at that point it was too late to throw to first base to try to get Nolt out.

Jonah Saner then hit a single scoring Menotti from third and Nolt advanced to second base.

Ogallala tried 8-1 at that point, but at least they knew at that point that they were going to play the sixth inning.

Jackson Saner then hit a single to load the bases.

Markell Macke then hit a single and Nolt scored from third to reload the bases.

Blake Robb then singled and Jonah Saner scored and Ogallala trailed 8 to 3 at that point.

Jessie Ortega then hit a three-run double to left center field and it hit off the fence to make the score Gering 8, Ogallala 6, as Jackson Saner, Markell Macke and Blake Robb all scored on the play.

At that point, Gering's Rece Knight was removed from the game as the starting pitcher as he threw 4 1/3 innings giving up nine hits, six runs (at the time), he walked zero batters and hit zero batters and I believe he struck out all three batters swinging.

Dawson Elsen came into pitch for Gering.

Tai Le singled to keep the rally going and Ortega moved to third on the play.

Tai Le then stole second base.

Keegan Florom then hit a single to shortstop scoring Jessie Ortega.

Tai Le then got caught stealing third base and the play was not very close!

Lou Menotti walked to force Florom to second and then Levi Nolt struck out looking to end the seven run inning for Ogallala.

Rece Knight gave up seven runs total and they all just happened to be in the fifth inning.

Based on statistics one of the Gering coaches gave me, Rece Knight had a 22.62 ERA in 4 1/3 innings pitched at some point before Sunday's game which was by far the worst on the entire Gering team.

Blake Robb then replaced Jackson Saner on the pitcher's mound for Ogallala to start the sixth inning.

Jackson Saner pitched five innings giving up eight runs, 10 hits, two hit batters, one walk and just two strikeouts (one was looking and the other was swinging)!

Bo Gable singled and then Che Molina hit a line drive to Levi Nolt who threw the ball to first base in plenty of time to double off Gable and to complete a double play!

Colter Shellito then reached on a fielding error by Tai Le.

The next batter was huge for Ogallala as Rece Knight struck out swinging!

In the bottom of the sixth, Jonah Saner then singled and advanced to second base on a Jackson Saner sacrifice bunt.

Markell Macke then got hit by a pitch and was subsequently put out on a 5-4 putout from Che Molina to Greyor Henton on a grounder hit by Blake Robb.

Two outs.

Gering then chose to intentionally walked Jessie Ortega.

So the bases were loaded. Gering 8, Ogallala 7.

Something had to give.

And it did!

Tai Le hit a line drive down the right field line just barely inside the fair/foul line on what basically looked like a check swing!

So Tai Le's hit drove in two runs and Ogallala took a 9-8 lead!

Keegan Florom then popped up to shortstop Bo Gable on the second base side of second base to end the inning.

Ogallala's Blake Robb then gave up a double to Greyor Henton, and a single to Dawson Elsen which advanced Henton to third.

Caleb Swisher then hit a single to tie the game again, this time at nine!

At some point during the inning up to this point, catcher Jessie Ortega threw the ball to second base and shortstop Tai Le caught it and it appeared that Le had tagged the baserunner out at second.

But the umpire called Swisher safe on a very close play.

Robb then hit Isaiah Murillo to load the bases.

Tai Le actually had to come out of the game at this point due to an injury in which he got cleated on his hand by the Gering baserunner.

Keegan Florom then moved from left field to play shortstop.

Gering's Kelan Dunn then hit the ball on a line drive to...Keegan Florom!

Bo Gable then hit a ground ball to the pitcher, second baseman Jonah Saner fielded it and tagged second base.

Two outs and Dawson Elsen scored as Gering took a 10 to 9 lead.

Bo Gable then stole second base.

Che Molina then hit a two-run single and Caleb Swisher and Bo Gable both scored.

Gering led 12-9 at this point.

Colter Shellito then hit a ground ball to third baseman Levi Nolt who threw to first to end the top half of the seventh inning.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Ogallala's Lou Menotti struck out swinging.

Levi Nolt then grounded out and he didn't really move out of the batter's box as he was tagged out by Gering's Isaiah Murillo.

Two outs.

Jonah Saner then came through again with a line drive single.

Jackson Saner hit a line drive to the shortstop Bo Gable who barely caught the ball off the ground and the umpire called Jackson Saner out to end the ballgame.

From my perspective, Jackson Saner's hit though looked like the baseball more likely than not probably hit the ground before Bo Gable supposedly caught it!

So Ogallala's Blake Robb took the loss (I guess, even though Jackson Saner gave up a lot more runs) and Robb pitched two innings, allowed four runs, hit one batter and struck out just one and it was swinging.

Gering's Dawson Elsen got the win and he pitched the last 2 2/3 innings, with two strikeouts (one looking and one swinging), 2 runs allowed, five hits and two walks (of which, one of those was intentional).

Gering scored 12 runs, busted out 15 hits, left eight people on base and committed zero defensive errors.

Ogallala finished with nine runs, 14 hits, seven people left on base and they officially committed two errors on defense.

For Gering, Isaiah Murillo was 1 for 4 with a run scored and two RBI's.

Colter Shellito was 2 for 5 with a run scored.

Rece Knight was 0 for 3 and scored during the plate appearance when he walked.

Dawson Elsen went 2 for 3 and scored one run, which just happened to be the game-winning run.

Caleb Swisher was 1 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI which tied the game at nine.

For Ogallala, Jackson Saner finished 1 for 4 with a run scored.

Markell Macke was 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Tai Le went 2 for 3 with two RBI's.

Keegan Florom went 1 for 4 with an RBI.

Lou Menotti went 1 for 3 with a run scored.

Preston Runge went 0 for 1.

Levi Nolt finished 0 for 3 with a run scored.

Gering plays at the Westco Zephyrs (Scottsbluff) on July 1st, versus the Security First Regulators on July 2nd and versus the Peltz Co. Spartans (Alliance) on July 3rd.

Gering then plays at Jersey's on July 5th and at the Smith County Blue Raiders also on July 5th.

They play vs. Grand Island USave Pharmacy on July 6th.

Gering then hosts this same Ogallala Adams Bank & Trust team on July 8th.

Ogallala is scheduled to play at Lexington on July 1st, at Minden on July 2nd and home versus Sidney on Monday, July 7th.

The game on July 7th might be Ogallala's home finale for the season.

Ogallala then travels to Gering on July 8th.

Gering is 10-9 on the season while Ogallala is 2-10 on the season.