Tigers Season Ends With West Branch Loss

By Ryan Stonebraker

Sports Editor

   TIPTON — The Tipton baseball season came to a surprising halt last Saturday after a 6-3 loss to West Branch in the opening round of class 2A district play. The Tigers hosted a doubleheader that saw Durant’s Curtis Lilienthal pitch a no-hitter in the opening game, sending the Wildcats to the next round. The Tigers end the season 11-15 and lost their last four games of the season, three of which were to West Branch. The Tigers dropped their RVC finale at home to the Bears four days earlier.

  West Branch scored the game's first run in the first inning, but Tipton tied the game in the bottom of the first on a Logan Hoffman single that scored Dylan Mente. Mente had reached base on a one-out walk. Tipton would strand two runners in the inning, including a base runner at third.

  The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the second inning. Colby Kleppe reached base on a one-out single, stole second and scored two batters later on a Quinten Mesick RBI single.

  The game went back and forth. West Branch tied the game in the top of the third at 2-2, but Tipton grabbed a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a Hoffman RBI double that scored Trent Pelzer. Pelzer had reached base on a one-out single. West Branch tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the sixth, and took control of the game in the top of the seventh, scoring three runs, which would prove to be the difference in the game.

  Logan Hoffman started the game for the Tigers. Tipton had eight hits in the game with two players getting two hits each. Trent Pelzer and Logan Hoffman each had two hits in the game. Quinten Mesick, Dylan Mente, Luke Becker and Colby Kleppe each had hits.

  Matt Paulsen got the win for West Branch. Paulsen struck out 11 Tiger batters and walked one. He gave up seven hits and three runs in 6 2/3 innings. Tanner Lukavsky came into the game and got the last out to secure the win.

  West Branch had nine hits in the game with four players collecting multi-hit games. Brady Lukavsky, Tanner Lukavsky, Jaden Hierseman and Paulsen all had two hits. Pete Espensen had the other Bears hit. Brady Lukavsky had two RBI’s while Tanner Lukavsky, Ted Bridges and Espensen each had a RBI. The Tigers had five errors in the game.

  West Branch advanced to play West Liberty on Tuesday. The Comets were the third seeded team in the district and beat the Bears twice on Monday, June 11 in an RVC doubleheader. The winner of that game will play the winner of the other semifinal between Durant and Wilton, on Saturday in Wilton for the district championship.