Photo by Mike Wilder

Defense and pitching helped the Gretna Seniors to a perfect record during the week. The Dragons won all five games including 4-0 at the Bennington Invite.

Gretna Seniors blank

Mount Michael; claim

first at Bennington Invite

by Mike Wilder

After spending a weekend hacking away with wood bats, the Gretna Senior legion team was more than happy to go back to their familiar metal bats starting Wednesday night in a game at Mount Michael. Mitch Reinig drove in four runs for Gretna, three of which came on a second-inning homerun that helped give Post 216 a 6-0 lead after two innings of play. Reinig also singled in the fourth to finish 2 for 4 with 4 RBIs.

Also happy to return to their aluminum bats were Dario Melendez and Ryan Schuetz. Melendez went 3 for 3 and scored twice while Schuetz drove in two runs on a pair of hits and also scored twice. Jordan Stirtz picked up the win for Gretna as he and Jesse Manzitto combined for the shutout.

The win over Mount Michael gave Gretna so

In its first game of the tournament on Friday afternoon, Gretna overpowered Wahoo 12-0 just before heavy storms moved into the Bennington area to move to 1-0 in Pool A of the 8-team tournament. Post 216 followed up that win with another convincing performance, this time picking up a 13-3 win over Benson Saturday morning. me much needed momentum heading into the Bennington Invitational over the weekend.

Gretna finished up pool play by taking down the Millard Sox 9-6 in a game played Sunday morning. That win set up a Sunday night championship game with MAA Blue, who also posted a 3-0 record in pool play with wins over the host team from Bennington, Kearney and Wayne.

Steve Weideman stepped up in a big way for Gretna in the championship game, driving in three runs on two hits as Gretna finished the tournament with an undefeated 4-0 record with a 12-7 win over MAA Blue.

The recent five-game winning streak lifts Gretna's record to 18-10-1 for the season with a pair of road league games next up on the slate. Tuesday night Gretna travels to Yutan for an 8:00 p.m. game and then will turn around for an 8:00 p.m. game at Wahoo on Wednesday. This weekend Gretna will head to South Omaha for the Van Metre Wood Bat Tournament. Post 216 will open tournament play Thursday afternoon with a 2:30 p.m. game against Waterloo-Valley.