2016 Northeast Kansas League Legion Baseball Standings - click here

2016 McDonald's "Players of the Game" on KNZA - click here

2016 Zone Tournament Assignments - click here

2016 AA Zone Tournament Bracket (at Sabetha) - click here
    (Doniphan County, Seneca, Sabetha, Silver Lake, Corning, Marysville, Linn)

2016 AAA State Tournament Bracket (at Great Bend) - click here (Oskaloosa)

2016 AA State Tournament Bracket (at Fort Scott) - click here (Doniphan County) 

Headed back to the State tournament is Doniphan County after capturing the AA Zone tournament title at Sabetha on Thursday night, while Seneca stayed alive in the consolation bracket to play Marysville on Friday for a spot at State, also. Seneca claimed an 11-0 win in five innings over Silver Lake and Doniphan County won 15-3 in four innings over Marysville.

To start the night Seneca grabbed an early lead against Silver Lake in an elimination game and never looked back winning 11-0 in five innings to move one win shy of a bid to the AA State legion tournament. Seneca used three hits, two walks and two errors in the top of the first to score five runs and then added a three-run homer by Cody Rottinghaus in the second to firmly take control of the game early against Silver Lake. Three more runs were scored in the fifth for Seneca to make it 11-0 and meaning Silver Lake needed to score in bottom of the fifth to continue the game and while Silver Lake worked the bases loaded that failed to scratch across a run and Seneca notched the 11-0 five inning win. 

Dalton Hiltibrand tossed five innings of scoreless ball giving up just three hits and three walks, while striking out three and going 1-3 at the plate with two runs scored and a walk to earn McDonald's "Player of the Game" on KNZA. Neil Sudbeck and Chase Kramer each registered a two-hit game for Seneca in the win. Silver Lake in the loss had Alex Whitehead, Wyatt Heiman and Garrett Huske each notched a hit. 

Finishing off the night the Zone tournament championship with a bid to State was up for grabs between two teams that were at State last year, Doniphan County and Marysville. Doniphan County took the early lead and a big second inning gave them a firm grasp on the game going on to win the contest 15-3 in four innings. An RBI double by Nathan Gaarder in the first inning gave Doniphan County an early 1-0 lead and that lead grew in the second as Doniphan batted around to score six runs on five hits and two walks with a two RBI double and RBI double Chris Winkel and Brody Winder, respectively to highlight the inning. Marysville got their first run in the bottom of the second on a Jacob Stryker triple and then throwing error by Doniphan County on a attempted pick off. Doniphan County continued to score the rest of the game plating four runs in the third and fourth innings, while Marysville only added two runs on three walks and two hit batters in the third. Marysville needing runs to continue the game in the bottom of the fourth went down in order giving Doniphan County the 15-3 win in four innings. 

Doniphan County used 11-hits to produce 15 runs and were led offensively by Luke "the terminator" Smith who went 3-3 with four RBI's, two runs scored and a double earning him McDonald's "Player of the Game" on KNZA. Winder added a 2-3 game with a double, run scored and RBI, while six other Doniphan County guys had six hits. Marysville in the loss had Adam Lindhorst go 1-2 and Stryker 1-1 with a triple, run scored, walk and RBI. 

Doniphan County returns to State for the eighth time and will travel to Fort Scott for the AA State tournament next week set to start on Wednesday, July 27th. 

The AA Zone tournament at Sabetha wraps up Friday night with the consolation championship game between Seneca and Marysville with the winner earning a spot at the State tournament.