07/20/2025
Hartington Post 4 Juniors started the Class C State Tournament off on a good note
The Hartington squad defeated Tecumseh 1-0 to advance to Sunday’s Second Round against Loomis.
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Hartington Juniors ride right arm of Micah Cattau to second round
-MIKE RENNING
Cedar County News
MALCOLM - The Hartington Post 4 Juniors Saturday rode the capable arm of right-handed Micah Cattau on the mound to turn away Tecumseh 1-0 in the opening round of the Class C Nebraska American Legion Juniors State Tournament.
Cattau tossed all seven innings with 102 pitches, 65 for strikes, allowing just two hits, one walk and striking out 13 Tecumseh batters.
"I was just happy to be a part of the win, we have great fielders and usually good hitting," said Cattau. "This was a team win, I was just on the mound. We win together. I couldn't be happier."
Post 4 manager Don Whitmire said his opening day pitcher really threw a great game.
"Micah pitched a gem," said Whitmire. "This group always gets what they need to win, today it was Micah. We will hit the ball better. We just squeaked by in the first round of the Area and then ran through the tournament. I'm not saying we'll do that here, but we are pretty confident in what we are doing."
Hartington manufactured a run in the third inning but still left 13 runners on base.
"We need to convert every hit into runs," said Whitmire. "I think we will from here on out, but the rest of what we do, defense, pitching, is plenty reliable."
Hartington opened the third with a couple outs on a fly out and a ground out.
Drey Puppe worked a walk and Easton Hochstein did the same to leave runners on first and second.
Puppe outran a play at home on a wild pitch to score and Cattau had all of the help he needed.
Cattau did try to help his own cause in the seventh when he laced a long fly ball to left center which the Tecumseh centerfielder tracked down at the wall, leaving two runners on, one of the 13 in the game.
"I thought I had that one, I hit that very well," said Cattau. "The guy made a good play and we got nothing, another reason to keep pitching my best."
His best was plenty good as Hartington moved on in the tournament to take on Loomis July 20 in the second round.
Loomis Post 338 was a 2-0 winner over Pender in the opening round and accounted for one of two Post 4 losses over the summer.
Loomis defeated Hartington 7-4 back on June 20 in a game played in Loomis when Post 4 went on a road trip south for three nights.
HAR 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 1 6 0
TEC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 2 4
WP: Micah Cattau LP: AJ Rautenbach.
1B: Hunter Bensen, Grady Haberer, Hudson Whitmire, Micah Cattau, Sam Wiebelhaus (H); Cris Ornelas, Isaac Beethe (T). 2B: Hunter Bensen (H).
