Waverly ends Plattsmouth's postseason run

OMAHA - In a game that featured zero hits through the first three innings, the senior legion team from Waverly ended up with 13 total hits over the final three innings to knock Plattsmouth Post 56 out of the B-2 area tournament and end its season Tuesday night at Omaha Roncalli. 

Southpaw Drew Iverson got the start for Plattsmouth and was matched up against Waverly's James Van Cleave. The two starters each made it through the game's first three innings without a hit allowed and five strikeouts a piece. 

But in the bottom of the fourth, Waverly finally solved the riddle on the Wichita State commit Iverson. Center fielder Payton Engel led off the inning with a bunt single for the games first hit. 

Drew Miller then sent a ground-rule double over the wall in right to put runners at the second and third with no one out for Wyatt Fanning. Fanning delivered an RBI single to right to score Engel and shortstop Landon Oelke followed with an RBI single of his own to give Waverly a 2-0 lead. 

It was the toughest inning of the night for Iverson, and it would be his last as Waverly sent seven hitters to the plate. Iverson finished the game allowing two earned runs with five strikeouts. 

Plattsmouth found some momentum against Van Cleave in the top of the fifth as a single combined with two errors and a hit-by-pitch were enough to knot the game at two. 

The pendulum swung back in favor of Waverly in the bottom of the fifth, though, as Gabe Villamonte entered to pitch for Plattsmouth. Villamonte, who threw a no-hitter in the Junior state tournament just a week earlier, got Kaden Harris to ground out to start the inning.

But it would be the only out he recorded as the next four hitters reached base safely on three hits. Trent Elshire came on in relief and the next three hitters followed with run scoring base hits with the big blow being a two-run double from nine-hole hitter Owen Carrillo to break the game open, 8-2 in favor of Waverly. 

Plattsmouth went quietly in the sixth managing only a two-out single. In the bottom half, back-to-back singles from Engel and Miller set up Waverly to deliver the knockout blow. 

Two batters later, Garrett Rine smacked a 2-RBI single to the left-center gap to give Waverly the 10-2 run-rule victory. 

Rine went 3-3 with 3 RBIs while the third through ninth batters in the Waverly lineup all had at least one hit, including Miller who went 3-4 and scored three times. Eight-hole hitter TJ Fitzpatrick went 2-3 and was the only Plattsmouth player to get into the hit column Tuesday. 

Waverly, the Class B runner-up in the spring, advanced to the area final against Roncalli where it will play for a state tournament berth while Plattsmouth's season ended on a sour note.

Box Score:

Plattsmouth: 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0...2, 2, 0

Waverly: 0, 0, 0, 2, 6, 2...10, 13, 2