Junior high tennis face Bluffton in developmental match

BLUFFTON — Junior high athletics often is for the purpose of learning and developing skills in a sport.

The Patriots and Tigers put together a meet that exemplified that cause.

The Jay County Junior High School tennis team traveled to Bluffton on Monday for a five-round meet that included four rounds of doubles matches and a final round set up in the style of a high school match.

In the match, each player swapped doubles partners and each of the first four rounds lasted 20 minutes. The final round featured No. 1, 2 and 3 singles matches, No. 1 and 2 doubles contests and four more singles contests that only lasted one set.

Claudia Dirksen and Kaitlyn Fisher had the best day of all the Patriots, finishing 5-0 between all rounds.

A trio of girls, Elly Byrum, Hallie Homan and Maria Laux, finished just behind them at 4-1.

Madison Clark and Izzy Huelskamp managed to tie a doubles match, leading to a final record of 3-1-1.

Paul Dirksen was the other Patriot to boast a positive record of 3-2.

Trailing behind, Henry Dirksen and Grady Warvel both finished 2-3. None of Jay County’s netters finished 1-4 or 0-5.

Keller leads

Williams Auto Parts claimed a 7-5 win over POET Bioprocessing in Portland Junior League Rookie baseball on Tuesday.

Thobe Keller ended as the top hitter for Williams Auto Parts with three hits, including a double, and three runs scored.

Corbin Hutzler countered with three hits of his own, two of which were doubles, and touching home plate twice.

The difference maker was Williams Auto Parts having five other players with multiple hits, while POET only had Harvey Hemmelgarn to join Hutzler.

Brett Huntsman and Zander Williams both slashed three singles, while Carson Dailey, Hudson Roussey and Daylan Winters secured two each.

Kiwanis wins

Kiwanis needed a group effort offensively to edge past PG14 with a 5-4 victory on Tuesday in Portland Junior League Willie Mays baseball.

Easton Steed and Conner Richman narrowly led the offense for Kiwanis. Steed had two singles and two runs. Richman finished with a home run, an RBI and two runs.

Royce Kaigler also had an extra-base hit for Kiwanis in the form of an RBI double.

Brantley Robinson made up the other run for Kiwanis, while L.J. Carter, Parker Huntsman and Griffen Lambert all drove in a run.

A pair of players from PG14 finished 2-for-3 at the plate. Eli Homan smacked two doubles to drive in a pair of runs and scored one himself. Beckham Hough hit a double and a single and scored one run.

The other two runs for PG14 came from Ethan Wilson.

Tie game

Pak-A-Sak and Matt’s Garage finished in a 14-14 tie in Portland Junior League Rookie baseball on Tuesday.

Pak-A-Sak’s Paxson Hudson put together the strongest day with five hits and four runs scored.

Right behind him were two players from both teams with four runs and four base knocks. From Pak-A-Sak, Ricky Heitkamp and Cage Reynolds added to Hudson’s effort, while Duke Armstrong and another player from Matt’s Garage countered with four hits and four runs scored.

A third standout player from Matt’s Garage also had four hits, while crossing home plate three times as well.