Jun 22, 2020

Spartans win Clair Conley Tournament

Posted Jun 22, 2020 1:32 PM

By: Mike Glesinger

A great weekend of baseball at Bower/Shankland field for the annual Clair Conley Memorial Tournament. The Alliance First National Bank-Omaha Spartan junior's and senior's hosted the 6 team event.  Sidney, Bridgeport, Chadron and Buckley also competed.  

Pool play began Friday morning with the Alliance Sr's winning 9-0 over Bridgeport.  Bridgeport then defeated Sidney 4-3.  Sidney came back for an 8-7 ove the Alliance Jr's. Buckley defeated Chadron 8-2 and in the final game on Friday the Alliance Sr's shutout Chadron 12-0.

Games resumed Saturday with Buckley defeating Bridgeport 8-0 and winning over the Alliance Jr's 10-2.  Chadron defeated the Alliance Jr's 13-2 and pool play finished with the Alliance Sr's winning 10-4 over Sidney.  Buckley was the pool B winner with a 3-0 record and the Alliance Sr's won pool A also going 3-0.  Chadron and Bridgeport were the #2 teams in each pool with Sidney and the Alliance Jr's the #3 teams.

The tournament concluded Sunday with the #3 teams meeting in the 5th-6th place game.  The Alliance Jr's won the rematch vs Sidney 10-2 to go 1-4 in the tournament and improve to 3-3 overall for the season.  Chadron put together 2 strong innings to defeated Bridgeport 10-2 in the 3rd-4th place game. Chadron finished the tournament 2-2, Bridgeport went 1-3. 

The Championship game matched up Buckley and the Alliance Sr's for the 3rd straight year.  Buckley claimed the title in 2018 and Alliance in 2019. Buckley took an early lead scoring 2 runs in the first and added another in the 2nd.  Alliance countered scoring 5 runs in the 3rd on 4 hits. Joel Baker, Trevor Dubray, Victor Hinojosa and EJ Gomez all came up with base hits with Dubray, Hinojosa and Caeson Clarke driving in runs.  Alliance added 2 more runs in the 5th on base hits by Trevor Dubray, EJ Gomez and Kirk Sanders to take a 7-3 lead into the 6th inning.   A brief rain shower and strong winds halted play for a short time.  Buckley then bounced back with 2 runs in the 6th, the big blow was a 2 run, home run by right fielder Manny Tena to make it 7-5.  Alliance was able to close out the game setting down Buckley 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th to take the victory.

Collin Schrawyer went 5 innings on the mound for the Spartan Sr's, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits, struck out 2 and walked 1. Trevor Dubray pitched the 6th and 7th, giving up 2 runs on 1 hit, struck out 4 and walked 1.    With the win the Spartan Sr's improve to 4-2 on the season.  

It's a busy week for the Alliance teams. The Sr's will host Rocky Mountain from Colorado in a double header at 10 and noon Monday.  The Jr's host the Rapid City Shooters at 4 and 6 pm. All 4 games at Bower/Shankland Field.  The Jr's host the Rapid City Bullets Tuesday at 5-7 pm. Both teams travel to Gering on Wednesday for games at 5-7 pm and the Sr's will play a weekend tournament in Gillette, Wy.