The Westside varsity baseball team got off to a quick start against Papilion-La Vista pitchers Trevor Jurjevich and KC Siwa and relied on pitching the rest of the way to beat the Papillion-La Vista Monarchs 9-1 to win the District A-1 Championship Game.

The Warriors scored two runs in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by junior Alex Nielsen and an RBI single by junior Will Patterson.

In the second inning, the Warriors added four runs. Senior Brock Nemecek scored on a stand-up triple by senior Jake Meyers, as the Papillion-La Vista right and center fielders experienced some confusion in the outfield. Next, senior Devin Stueck brought Meyers home on a single. Then Stueck advanced to second on a wild pitch, and senior Drew Fitzmorris brought Stueck home. Next, sophomore Mitch Hagan drove in the Warriors sixth run, bringing Fitzmorris home.

After the fourth run of the second inning, Papillion-La Vista brought in Siwa to replace Jurjevich. Siwa got two outs to end the inning, but in the bottom of the third Westside got three runs off of Siwa, to get to nine runs. Junior Mike Waldron hit a double to right-center field before his brother, junior Matt Waldron, took base on a walk. Next, Nemecek hit a two-RBI double to bring home both Waldrons. Then, Fitzmorris brought home Nemecek with an RBI-stand-up double. This marked the end of Westside’s scoring.

Meanwhile, Meyers and senior Christian Hagan shut down the Monarch offense. Meyers, the Westside starter, held Papillion-La Vista to zero runs on three hits. Hagan came in during the fourth inning and retired the side on nine pitches. Papillion-La Vista scored one run off of Mi. Waldron in the fifth inning, but he and senior Jackson Rose, who pitched the ninth inning, kept the Monarchs from scoring the rest of the game, giving the final score of 9-1.

Westside finished with nine runs on seven hits with no errors. Papillion-La Vista finished with one run on six hits with one error.

For Westside, which was coming off of a 12-0 win over Omaha Northwest, the win adds hardware to the program and gave the team extra momentum headed into the state tournament, as the team was already guaranteed the No. 1 seed in the state tournament whether it won or lost. For Papillion-La Vista, the loss meant the team would be kept out of the eight-team state tournament.

Westside plays Saturday, May 17 at 10:00 a.m. in the first round of the state tournament at Sherman Field in Lincoln. Westside will play the No. 8 seed.

Winning Pitcher: Jake Meyers (Westside)

Losing Pitcher: Trevor Jurjevich (Papillion-La Vista)

Game notes

Before the game, a moment of silence was held for late Westside alum David Korff. Korff was a member of the baseball team during his time at Westside.