In the schools fourth year of existence, the Nemaha Central baseball team claimed the school’s first ever state championship Saturday afternoon taking down Whitewater-Remington 5-4 in the championship of the Class 3A State Tournament in Manhattan.

After taking down Royal Valley 7-1 in the quarterfinals Thursday and Wellsville Friday with a walk-off 2-1 win on an RBI double from Kyle Kramer, the Thunder entered Saturday as the only team in the tournament playing their third game in three separate days.

Because of mother nature, the Broncos were being forced to play their second straight game on the day after knocking out Larned 4-2 early Saturday morning.

Nemaha Central struck early and often to begin the game scoring two runs in both the first and second innings, while tacking on one more in the third to jump out to a 5-0 lead.

The Thunder received RBI’s from Neil Sudbeck, Dylan Schraad, and Dalton Hiltibrand in the first three innings, with the Bronco defense committing two errors which resulted in two unearned runs.

Nemaha Central’s 5-0 lead held all the way until the fourth inning, and that’s when the Whitewater-Remington offense finally came alive plating four runs on four hits and one Thunder error to pull within one.

Schraad came on in relief of Ryan Hasenkamp in the fifth after the Broncos put up the crooked number, and the left-hander shut down the Whitewater-Remington offense the rest of the way allowing just one hit while striking out three to preserve the win and the school’s first ever state title.

The Thunder used their speed throughout most of the game stealing eight total bases with Sudbeck swiping four bags himself.

Nemaha Central finished the season 23-1, a 16-win improvement from a year ago, and champions of both the Big 7 League and Class 3A.