Bentley Willison's home run propels Cornerstone to win (2024)

Cornerstone Insurance Group Columbus Seniors hosted South Sioux City in a pivotal game Friday night at Pawnee Park with Area Tournament seeding at stake.

The game entered the sixth inning tied 4-4. After reliever Keiton Watchorn worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the frame, left fielder Bentley Willison launched a three-run home run over the left field wall for the final blow of a 7-4 victory.

"We can't just show up and expect to win because we're on the field with some of these teams we play. Not that they're a bad team," Cornerstone head coach Cody Schilling said. "They threw a decent pitcher at us, but I don't think he was any better than what we faced (Thursday) what Fremont threw at us. We just got to make sure we show up every day for games and plan on winning, but working hard to do it."

Willison stepped into the batter's box after a leadoff double by Grant Zoucha and Matthew Kinnison drawing a hit by pitch. After taking the first pitch for a ball, Willison sent the second pitch out of the yard.

The game was called during the next at-bat due to incoming thunderstorms.

"I've been struggling lately hitting the ball," Willison said. "Jarrett (Bell) told me to bunt and I didn't bunt. I don't what happened."

Willison hit his second home run of the season. After graduating from Columbus High last year, Willison returned to Cornerstone this summer and sports a .315 batting average with 13 RBIs, the second most on the team.

"It feels really good," Willison said. "We got a really good group of guys this summer and I get along with all of them really well. This is probably my favorite senior Legion team so far."

Columbus mustered just five hits. Wyatt Swanson tied the game at 1-1 in the first on an RBI triple. He scored on a SSC error to put the Seniors into the lead.

In the second, Charlie Larson lined an RBI sac fly to regain Cornerstone's lead at 3-2. Zoucha matched Larson with an RBI sac fly in the third to make it 4-2.

"I think we're trying to do too much with the baseball rather than seeing it and hitting it. Everyone's trying to do what Bentley (Willison) did. Bentley wasn't trying to do that. He just put a good swing on the ball and it went," Schilling said. "The only thing you control is what you swing at and how you hard it. If you're trying to hit it out, more than likely it's not going to happen so just trying to make good, hard contact."

Zoucha pitched his first career game on Friday. He tossed three innings allowing two runs on three hits and four walks. He struck out four hitters stranding five runners on base in the first two innings.

Watchorn earned the win pitching the second half of the game. He allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits and one walk along with five strikeouts.

In total, both pitchers left 11 South Sioux City baserunners on base.

"They haven't had much work this year other than bullpens. I thought they both did a good job at times and then at times we can't give leadoff walks or two-out walks. We got to make sure that we curtail that," Schilling said. "We can't get ahead and hit a guy, but for the most part I thought they did a good job. They didn't allow big innings to happen. They worked their way out of things that could've really exploded and been really bad."

Cornerstone improved to 11-10 to cap off its busiest stretch of the season playing eight games in seven days. It'll return to the diamond on Wednesday at Grand Island.

"I thought we would maybe we would be a little bit record-wise, but it's coming around. I see glimpses of what this team can be," Schilling said. "It's just a matter of showing up every day and working hard in games and practices and putting it together. Letting our play and how we work and our work ethic take over and get us there."

OneNebraska

OneNebraska Federal Credit Union Columbus Junior Blues sustained its hot bats in a 15-2 run-rule win over SSC.

They totaled 13 hits, including three extra-base hits, as Dylan Kay, Dominic Rother, and Cam Gustafson combined to hit 9-for-9 at the plate.

"They came in (Friday) with kind of an attitude. That game, if we want that, we knew that went a long way in getting the one seed at districts," OneNebraska head coach Travis McCloud said. "They came in with something to prove and something to work for and they did a really good job. Connor (Williams) did a great job pitching. He made those guys swing the bat and we made the plays that we could and went from there."

Kay led the Blues with four hits. He doubled, drove in two runs and scored once. In the first, Kay doubled home Bryson Reeder to open the scoring.

After a single in the second, Kay brought home Reeder again on a single to left field. He singled for the third time in the fourth.

"I thought we played pretty good. We hit the ball out of the gate and hit the ball really well," Kay said. "Obviously with slower pitching, it's easier to time everything up."

Rother finished the game 3-for-3 with four RBIs and one run scored. Gustafson hit 2-for-2 with a double and two runs scored.

Dayton Snyder crossed home plate three times and drove in one run. Connor Williams and Damon Liermann posted one RBI each.

"They did really good. They attacked right away. Didn't watch a whole lot of strikes. Once they got they hit," McCloud said. "Last game we didn't do a great job scoring a guy from third, so we worked on that (Thursday) at practice. We saw a few people took the approach of ball in play and scoring a couple guys. It seemed to work out really, really well."

On the mound, Williams threw a complete game. He allowed two runs, one earned, on six hits and one walk. The Blues starter rang up eight South Sioux City hitters after entering the game with five strikeouts in his first four appearances.

"You know what you're going to get from Connor (Williams)," McCloud said. "He doesn't throw the hardest, but kind of nibbles around the zone and makes people work hard to get bat on ball, barrel on ball. He keeps you in games. It's nice when you know four or five runs is going to give you a real good shot."

OneNebraska improved to 9-7 as it'll also play at Grand Island on Wednesday.

"I think we're playing the best baseball we've had all year. We're starting to figure out kind of where the pitchers fall in place and where our lineup falls into place," McCloud said. "We had a good weekend up in Sioux Falls. Didn't obviously end the way we wanted it to, but we played good baseball the whole time. I think these guys are starting to see that we can do some damage. We can make a run and we can be really good baseball team."