St. Paul/Palmer bucks Centennial on the road
It was a dominating finish to an up and down contest for the St. Paul/Palmer Cats in Beaver Crossing Tuesday as they took on the Centennial Broncos. Neither team scored in the first inning setting up a wild second inning that saw the Cats jump out to a 4-0 lead, the Broncos looking for their first win of 2026 matched St. Paul/Palmer with four runs of their own in their half of the inning to knot things up at four apiece.
The Cats batted through the lineup in the top of the third regaining the lead at 9-4. Centennial tried rallying once again this time in the bottom of the fourth. The Cats made a pitching change as Carter Hawley came on in relief of Zandyn Weller. Hawley gave up three consecutive singles before recording his first out of the inning on a pop fly to center, three consecutive walks had St. Paul/Palmer going back to the bullpen as Christian Lemburg shut the door on the Broncos recording the inning's final two outs.
St. Paul/Palmer then went on a scoring tear snagging the game's final 16 runs with three in the fifth inning and then scoring a season high 13 runs in the seventh batting through the order twice to round out the scoring at 25-7. The 25 runs set a school record dating back to the first season for the Cats in April of 2021 a 22-1 victory over Maxwell/North Platte St. Pats
The win gives the Cats their fourth win of the year bring them back to a .500 record at 4-4 while Centennial drops to 0-5.
Braxton Heater takes the Dugout Grill dang good play of the game with a Grand Slam in the seventh inning bringing four of his seven RBIs on the day. Mason Hoppes earns Runza MVP honors going three for five on the day with two RBIs and three runs scored.
St. Paul/Palmer will have the rest of the week off before hosting Central City/Centura and Wayne next week at home.