The North Platte High baseball team lost a close game, 3-1, to Gretna East on Friday in the district final in Gretna.

The Bulldogs end their inaugural season with a record 10-4.

In the battle between the two first-year programs, Gretna East (17-7) scored first in the bottom of the third inning. The Griffins added to the lead by scoring a run each in the fourth and fifth innings.

NPHS got on the board in the sixth inning. But Chase Neneman relieved starting pitcher Trevor Cox in the seventh inning and got the last three outs to send Gretna East to the Class B state baseball tournament.

The Bulldogs outhit the Griffins, 6-3, but committed three errors.

Easton Jones pitched the first five innings for North Platte and Landan Greeno threw the final inning.

The day before, NPHS opened districts by defeating Nebraska City, 5-4.

Nebraska City (6-11) went ahead with three runs in the top of the second inning. The Bulldogs got on the board with a run in the bottom of the second but the Pioneers answered back with a run in the third.

The Dawgs broke through with four runs in the fourth to take the lead. They held the Pioneers scoreless the next three innings to advance to the B-3 championship game.

Jack Polk pitched all but one out for the Bulldogs. Jones came in for him and got the last out of the seventh.

North Platte won their first five games of the season, including a 13-2 win over Maxwell-St. Pat’s on March 19 at Bill Wood Field. MSP was the host team for the matchup between the two upstart Lincoln County programs.

The NPHS offense hit their only home game at Bill Wood on April 4 when they dominated Aurora, 12-2.

The Bulldogs had three losses in the regular season — a 4-0 loss to Class C No. 1 Malcolm, and they were swept by Grand Island in a doubleheader on April 12.

The highlight of the season came the next day when they won, 11-8, against archrival, Kearney.

North Platte loses three seniors to graduation this year — Polk, Rayce Moerke and Jordan Yonkers.

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