The Letcher Hawks 16U Teener team hosted the Region 4 Tournament on Monday and Tuesday, July 29 and 30. Although they didn’t have the outcome they were looking for, they worked hard and enjoyed having another summer of bat-and-ball fun. 

The Hawks’ first game was against Garretson, and despite out-hitting Garretson 12 to nine, Letcher just couldn’t capture enough runs to win and fell to the Garretson 16U team 5-7. 

Oscar Anderson led the Hawks offensively with three hits in four at bats, hitting a single in the first, third and fifth innings. With help from Payton Uecker with a triple and McCoy Schulz grounding out to score a run, the Hawks were up 5-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, but Garretson answered with three runs of their own in that inning to go up 5-6 and then scored again in the sixth with no response from the Hawks to take the game 5-7.

Parker Ettswold stepped on the hill first for Letcher. He surrendered six hits and five runs over four and one-third innings, striking out three and walking three. The Hawks also turned one double play in the game.

Schulz and Uecker were tough to handle back-to-back in the lineup, as each drove in two runs for the Hawks. Bryce Larson and Jayden Digmann both collected multiple hits for Letcher, as well. 

The Hawks 16U Teeners had their next game later the same day, Monday, and their opponent was the Canistota/Freeman 16U Sticks. The game got started that evening, but had to be called early due to lightning, so they had to finish the game Tuesday afternoon. Going into Tuesday’s play, the Hawks were only down 0-3, but the Sticks scored nine runs in the sixth inning, which brought the end to Letcher’s 16U season with a 0-12 loss.

Schulz stepped on the mound first for Letcher. The lefty allowed two hits and three runs over one and one-third innings, striking out one and walking two. 

On the offensive side of things, Luke Larson, Letcher’s number eight batter, showed the depth of the Hawk’s lineup by leading them with two hits in two at bats.

Unfortunately, the two losses in the Region Tournament ended the season for the 16U Hawks. They finished with a 5-6 record for the year. 

…See pictures in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!