In order to qualify for the Class B state tournament, the Aurora Cooperative Post 42 Juniors team needed to win three straight elimination games.
Mission accomplished.
Aurora won two winner-take-all games Tuesday night at Levitt Stadium in York, downing Seward 9-5 before hanging on over York, 8-6, to claim the Class B Area 4 championship.
The district win and state championship berth is the first for the Post 42 Juniors program since 2017. In a bit of a full-circle moment, two of Aurora’s coaches -- Jarrett Havens and Grant Bonifas -- were players on that 2017 team.
Havens, who couldn’t stop smiling well after all the celebratory photos were taken, mentioned how special it was for the Aurora youngsters to taste this sort of baseball success.
“I am beyond proud of these boys,” Havens shared. “The way these guys battled all season and what we did in this tournament was great. I am so proud.”
Aurora Legion baseball manager Jeremy Burgener, who was also a coach during the last state tournament run, paced the dugout in the final innings and felt a certain sense of pride in seeing the Juniors win it all and having several goals for the year be checked off.
One of those goals included winning the district championship, but another was establishing a winning culture that Burgener believes is happening in real time.
“We’ve been competitive, but not never really come out on the field knowing we’re the best team and getting those wins,” Burgener said. “Now, we get to set new goals of competing at the state tournament. At this point, we’ve hit so many of our goals that this is a big deal.”
A big reason for the Aurora Cooperative Juniors’ success in the championship game over York came on the mound as Tate Bendorf tossed a gem, coming oh so close to a complete game.
Bendorf threw 6-2/3 innings before hitting the pitch limit, allowing four earned runs on 11 hits with six strikeouts.
Landen Hansen came in for the final out, which was a strikeout, leading to a celebratory dog pile on the turf mound.
“It’s always so competitive playing York,” Havens said. “We know we can beat them and they feel that way about us. In that first inning, when we got on them right away, I knew right away we had a good chance.”
It was never going to be easy, though. Aurora held a 2-1 lead through four when they added three insurance runs in the fifth with clutch RBI singles from Knox Suchanek and Keagan White at the bottom of the order.
The Aurora Cooperative Juniors added three more insurance runs in the sixth off wild pitches, extending its lead to 8-3.
From there, Aurora needed to hang on as York scored three in the bottom of the seventh before Bendorf and Hansen got out of a jam with the potential game-winning run at the plate.
White had three hits for Aurora in the nine hole while Hansen added two. White, Suchanek, Mason Wiens, Micah Shannon and Dylan Ronnau all had RBIs in the win.
Aurora 9, Seward 5
Just an hour earlier, the Aurora Cooperative Juniors picked up a 9-5 win over Seward -- its second of the tournament -- to qualify for the championship game.
“I thought we had a lot of momentum after the first game,” Havens said. “The way we played in that first game, getting our bats going and pitching well with good defense was a big help.”
Aurora looked to be dominant early, utilizing a five-run second inning to lead 6-0 and eventually 8-0 through four innings.
The five-run second included back-to-back RBI doubles from Dylan Ronnau and Sawyer Kiner, both coming with two outs.
Seward put a scare into the Aurora dugout during the bottom of the fifth with its own five-run inning, making it an 8-5 game. But, Aurora added an insurance run in the sixth and held on late for the win.
Kiner had two of Aurora’s six hits in the game as well as two RBIs while Ronnau also netted two RBIs.
In four of Aurora’s five district games, the pitching staff carried the flag with its starter going at least five full innings.
Ronnau pitched five complete innings against Seward in their first matchup, Kiner pitched five in the lone loss to York, White tossed a complete game winner over Central City and Bendorf went 6-2/3 in the championship game.
Havens noted that the Juniors’ pitching staff was as big of a reason as any for the tournament success.
“That really saved us as we got deep into the tournament,” Havens said. “We had plenty of arms if we needed them today. It’s really nice we never really had to get deep into our bullpen, but I thought we were in really good shape.”
“We had so many guys step up and fill their role really well,” Burgener added. “Several of our guys had their best outings of the season in this tournament.”
Aurora also had two players named to the Area 4 all-tournament team with White and Kiner. White hit .467 in the tournament with a team-high seven hits from the No. 9 hole to go along with his complete game winner on the mound against Central City.
Kiner was .353 at the plate to go along with a three-run homer and played the final three games behind the plate.
The Aurora Cooperative Juniors begin the Class B state tournament in Wayne early Saturday morning, playing Wayne at 10 a.m.
Havens was on the Aurora Cooperative Juniors team the last time it qualified for the state tournament in 2017, laughing that it didn’t go very well. That year, Aurora went 0-2 at the state tournament and finished with a 15-11 record.
This time around, however, Aurora enters state with a 20-7 record at the Juniors level.
“This is just awesome,” Havens said about qualifying for state. “It’s a great experience and I hope these guys play better than coach Bonifas and I did when we went to state. I feel really good about this group going to state.”
Burgener added how truly special this moment is for a group of kids that has taken its lumps in their early years of both high school and legion baseball.
“These guys finally got to play against kids their own age,” Burgener said about Aurora’s Junior-level team. “This team has, over the past couple years, always had to come up and play varsity ball or come up and play Seniors ball. A lot of these kids have had to play up a lot and I want them to see this success at the right level.”
Per the Wayne Baseball Association, in conjunction with Wayne High School, a live stream video of all state tournament games will be available. A direct link can be found by searching wayne-baseball.com and selecting the Hudl dropdown tab.