BROOKINGS – The 2024 South Dakota Senior American Legion State Class A Tournament kicked off on Tuesday with Watertown, Renner and Harrisburg Gold winning their opening games.
The …
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BROOKINGS — The 2024 South Dakota Senior American Legion State Class A Tournament kicked off on Tuesday with Watertown, Renner and Harrisburg Gold winning their opening games.
The tournament will continue Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Watertown and Sioux Falls East opened up the State Legion Baseball Tournament on Tuesday morning it was Watertown that came away with a 4-2 victory.
Post 17 scored three runs in the top of the first inning and hung on the rest of the way.
Hayden Ries led off the game with a single and Mitch Olson followed with a walk. Each runner advanced on a wild pitch and Ries came home on a single from Nathan Briggs. Nash Berg was then walked to load the bases up and Markus Pitkin hit an RBI single to make it 2-0. Treyton Himmerich then hit Briggs home with a sacrifice fly and that gave Watertown a three-run lead.
Neither team scored again until the fourth inning where Sioux Falls East cut the lead to 3-2. Sawyer Mindt and Tate Schafer hit back-to-back singles to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Mindt advanced to third on Schafer’s single and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Brycen Mitchell. Ryan Hirsch and Brayden Olson were then walked to load the bases up with one out.
Kaden Rylance was able to get the second out for Watertown with a strikeout but then hit Dylan Rippentrop and SF East scored a run. However, Rylance was able to force the next batter into a ground out and got out of the inning.
Rylance was able to avoid giving up the lead in the next two innings and Watertown then scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Dylon Rawdon doubled to lead off the inning and then scored on an error to make it 4-2 heading into the final half inning.
Briggs came on to pitch in the bottom of the seventh. He gave up a one-out single and a walk, but then forced a pop up and line out to secure the win for Watertown.
Rylance pitched six innings and gave up two earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and two walks.
Watertown had six hits in the win. Briggs was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Pitkin was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Marcus Rabine, Rawdon and Ries were each 1-for-3. Himmerich had an RBI without a hit.
SF East had eight hits as a team. Mindt was 4-for-4 and Rippentrop was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Chase Dubois, Schafer and Hirsch were each 1-for-3. Mitchell had an RBI without a hit.
Caden Watson pitched the first two and two thirds innings for Post 15. He gave up three earned runs on three hits with four strikeouts and four walks. Ethan Olson pitched the final four and a third and gave up one earned run on three hits with one walk.
Watertown will play Harrisburg Gold at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the winners bracket. SF East will play an elimination game against Brandon Valley at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
An RBI single from Zachary Dunham ended a marathon State Legion Tournament game on Tuesday afternoon at Bob Shelden Field as Renner defeated Yankton 7-6 in 10 innings.
Renner jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first two innings but Yankton came all the way back to force extra innings.
Post 307 had 10 batters come to the plate in the first inning as they scored five runs. Charlie Hueners and Kyle Konechne each hit singles to lead off the inning. Huerners scored on a single from Sullivan Schlimgen and Konechne came home on a sacrifice fly from Dunham. Schlimgen advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a single from Hunter Den Boer. Brogan Moffitt then hit an RBI double and Jacob Sanderson hit him home with a single to make it 5-0 heading into the second.
Konechne led off the bottom of the second with a double. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a single from Schlimgen to make it 6-0.
Yankton got on the board with two runs in the top of the fourth. A single from Lucas Kampshoff and walks from Matthew Sheldon and Owen Wishon loaded the bases with nobody out. Kampshoff scored on a single from Samuel Gokie and Sheldon scored on a walk from E Serck to cut the lead to 6-2.
Post 12 then tied the game with four runs in the sixth. Gokie and Serck each hit singles and Austin Gobel walked to load the bases again with no outs. Tate Beste then hit an RBI single and Kampshoff followed with a two-run single to cut the lead to 6-5. Kampshoff then hit Gobel home with a single to tie the game but Wishon hit into a double play to end the inning.
Neither team had a scoring threat in the final inning and a half and the game went to extra’s. Renner had runners on second and third with one out after Schlimgen and Den Boer were walked. Yankton got out of the jam after forcing Moffitt to pop up and Schlimgen was caught stealing home.
Schlimgen had another chance to score the winning run in the 10th though as he walked with two outs. He then stole second before coming home on the Dunham single and that sent Renner into the winners side of the bracket.
Renner had 10 hits in the win. Dunham was 1-for-4 with two RBIs and Schlimgen was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Sanderson and Moffitt were each 1-for-4 with an RBI and Konechne was 2-for-5. Den Boer was 1-for-3 and Brody Jacobson was 1-for-4 and Hueners was 1-for-5.
Braylon Bear pitched the first five and a third innings for Post 307. He gave up five earned runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and four walks. Rylan Arbogast then did not record an out as he gave up an earned run on three hits. Hueners pitched the final four and two thirds innings and got the win, giving up no runs, one hit and had six strikeouts and two walks.
Yankton had nine hits in the loss. Kampshoff was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Gokie was 2-for-4 with one RBI. Serck was 1-for-3, Sheldon was 1-for-4 and Beste was 1-for-5 and all three batters had an RBI. Gobel was 2-for-4.
Mark Kathol pitched the first inning for Post 12 and gave up six earned runs on eight hits. Frankie Inveld then pitched the rest of the way and gave up one earned run on two hits with six strikeouts and three walks.
Renner will play Brookings in the winners bracket at 7 p.m. tomorrow. Yankton will take on Rapid City in an elimination game at 1 p.m.
The first game of the night session at the 2024 South Dakota State American Legion Class A Tournament was a pitching duel as Harrisburg’s Eli Kokenge outdueled Brandon Valley’s Carter LaBrie to lead Harrisburg to a 2-0 victory at Bob Shelden Field on Thursday evening.
Kokenge limited Brandon Valley to four hits and seven strikeouts over 6.1 shutout innings but he was matched by LaBrie, who threw a gem of his own to keep things close.
Both pitchers hung zeroes in the first two innings before Harrisburg started a rally in the bottom of the third. Coen Cook singled on a bunt in front of the plate and stole second base before advancing to third base on a groundout by Carter Gronseth. With a runner 90 feet away, Jack Riley capitalized with an RBI single for the first run of the game.
But while Harrisburg took an early lead, they couldn’t generate much against LaBrie who allowed six hits, no walks and a pair of strikeouts.
The performance kept it a one-run game until the bottom of the sixth inning when Max Carlson hit a one-out double. After advancing to third on Maddux Scherer’s groundout, Teigan Munce delivered a two-out RBI single to put Harrisburg up 2-0.
Kokenge faced his final batter in the top of the seventh inning, striking out Ryland Carroll but Brandon Valley mounted a last-ditch rally against Palmer Boyd. Boyd gave up a single to Jackson Adams to begin his outing before Bryton Stroh popped out for the second out of the inning. Drake Jellema walked to bring the winning run to the plate and Max Peters was hit by a pitch to load the bases but Boyd got Pudwill to ground out to second base to end the game.
Kokenge earned the win for Harrisburg while Boyd earned the save, allowing a hit and a walk over the final 0.2 innings.
Noah Boschee went 2-for-2 for Harrisburg. Carlson went 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Cook went 1-for-2 with a run scored and a stolen base. Munce went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Tate Larson stole a base as a pinch runner.
Adams went 2-for-3 for Brondan Valley. Peters went 1-for-2 while Brayden Knutson and Aiden Zerr each went 1-for-3.