AUBURN - With its backs against the wall after an opening round loss to the Nebraska City Post 8 Juniors, the Post 105 Hickman Titans rallied for five wins in four days, including back-to-back wins Tuesday night to claim the B-1 Junior Area Tournament title at Tushla Field to advance to the state tournament. 

Nebraska City came into the title game 3-0 in the tournament--riding high off a 21-4 win against the No. 1 seed Auburn on Sunday--needing to win just once to earn a state tournament berth. 

But Hickman had other plans and spoiled the party to put an end to Nebraska City's magical postseason run. 

Game One

Hickman opened up a 6-2 lead after three innings with three runs scoring in the third. After Nebraska City starter Greyson Flash retired the first two hitters, Hickman pounded out four straight hits, including three RBI hits with the last being an RBI double from right fielder Kaden Kier. 

Each team went scoreless in the fourth and fifth before the Titans (25-11-1) scored another on an RBI single from John Hood to make it 7-2 in the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, Jackson Kreifel started things off with a double against relief pitcher Porter Dutter after a flyout from Nolan Beccard.

Tristan Kingery followed with an RBI single to score Kreifel. That set the table for Colton Snyder as he blasted a deep line shot off the left field wall for an RBI double to score the courtesy runner Dakota Cozad, cutting the deficit to 7-4. 

Dutter got out of the inning with a flyout and strikeout.

Nebraska City (5-13-1) made things interesting in the seventh as Sam Rovetto reached on an error to start the inning. Rovetto rolled a ground ball to third and Carter Ibsen sent the throw wide to first allowing Rovetto to advance to second with no one out. Ben Chaney followed with an RBI single to make it 7-5.

But then Dutter got pinch hitter Riley Penney to ground into a 4-6-3 double play four outs one and two before Nolan Beccard was retired on a groundout to third as the Titans took game one to force a winner-take-all game two.

Box Score:

Hickman: 1, 2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 0...7, 12, 1

Nebraska City: 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1...5, 5, 1

WP: Hood

LP: Flash

Game Two

Nebraska City struck first in game two on a Keston Holman RBI double off of Hickman starter J.T. Druba. It was the second start for Druba against Post 8 in the tournament, and he was lights out after the first inning. 

The Titans added five runs of their own in the bottom of the first off Kingery who was pitching for the first time in the tournament. The big blow came from Jordan Monroe after a double and two walks loaded the bases. 

Monroe then laced a 3-run double off the wall in left-center field to clear the bases and the rout was on from there. 

Druba worked a scoreless second inning and allowed an unearned run in the third as Hickman maintained a 5-2 lead. 

The wheels fell off for Nebraska City (5-14-1) in the bottom of the frame as Hickman added five more runs to its total, pushing its lead to 10-2 on three hits and an error. 

The Titans (26-11-1) added two more in the fourth to make it 12-2 thanks to an RBI double from Kier who went 3-3 in game two with 2 RBIs. 

From there Druba did the rest as he went through the heart of the Nebraska City lineup in order to earn the complete game victory. Holman rocketed a deep line drive into the gap in left, but left fielder Caden Hosack read it well and snagged it for the game's final out as the Titans dogpiled just beyond the pitcher's mound. 

With the win, Hickman advanced to the Class B Junior State Tournament which begins Saturday, July 16 in Wahoo. The Titans went all the way through the loser's bracket, winning twice on the final day to make it to state.

For Nebraska City, an impressive postseason run came to an end just short of state. Entering the tournament, Nebraska City had just two wins, before beating three consecutive higher-seeded teams in the tournament coming into Tuesday's final round. 

Box Score:

Nebraska City: 1, 0, 1, 0, 0...5, 2, 3

Hickman: 5, 0, 5, 2...12, 9, 1

WP: Druba

LP: Kingery