May 5—DICKINSON — Defeating past demons, at times, is just as important as defeating opponents and the Dickinson Midgets baseball team put down quite a few of those demons on Thursday, May 4, 2023 with a doubleheader sweep over Williston at Astoria Park. The two teams met most recently on April 28 with a diametrically opposite result, but while DHS was swept in that initial meeting, they were wired-for-sound against the Coyotes at home, winning 17-1 and 10-0 to move to 9-4 on the year with a 7-1 record and top-honors in the Western Dakota Association standings with an .875 winning percentage.

"It was a good turnaround, but it was a lot of preparation and we were busy with them after the doubleheader loss to these guys and we had a little bit better focus at the plate; you can't just be up there, hacking," DHS manager Pete Dobitz said. "We had a real good week of preparation ... our batting was so much better tonight."

Bismarck Legacy sits in second-place in the WDA at press-time with an 8-2 record, tied with Jamestown at .800 for winning percentage, while Minot is at fourth at 6-2.

The Coyotes came into the game riding a 10-4 record, but had no answers for the Midgets either on the mound or at the plate throughout the twin-bill.

While it was clearly a dominating performance at the plate for Dickinson given the lopsided scoring, it was hard to tell whether the offense or defense outperformed each-other. Out of the 10 possible innings required to play the truncated set of games, which both ended in mercy rules by DHS being 10 or more runs ahead, DHS batted-around in five of them seemingly scored-at-will.

In Game 1, everything went right from the first-pitch, line-drive single by Jace Kovash through to the end of the game. DHS jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the strength of a 3-run triple from Camben Kubas — who drove home Jadon Bast, Jacob Lucas and Davin Seibel — and further RBIs from Bast, Colin Tschetter and Jeremiah Jilek. The Midgets added to the Coyotes' misery in the second inning with a 2-run triple from Bast on a long, line-drive to the right-centerfield wall that scored Kaeden Krieg and Tschetter that was bobbled by the center-fielder and resulted in Bast stretching it across the plate for a 9-0 advantage.

In the fourth inning, the Midgets pushed the game out of reach by sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring 8 runs. Seibel capped off the inning with a 3-RBI double that plated Hunter Deschamp and Quentin Scheitlin, but that didn't come before an RBI single from Krieg and a comedy-of-errors by the Coyote fielders that DHS jumped all over and took advantage of time and again.

For example, Lucas, Aidon Rodakowski and Jace Kovash all scored on a misplayed fly-ball by the Williston right-fielder — that came off the bat of Jack Price — after Kovash and Rodakoski had walked to open the inning. Then, Tschetter reached on an error that Price subsequently scored off, giving DHS a 13-0 advantage, and Tschetter then scored on a line-drive to center by Krieg.

One of the key stories of the game came in the form of starting pitcher Chase Selle, who was chased off the mound after giving up 5 first-inning runs in a Tuesday game at Bismarck Century the Midgets eventually won. That early exit left Selle short of a pitch count requirement that allowed him to pitch a complete-game, two-hitter versus Williston in which he gave up no earned runs and struck out 4.

"Chase Selle vanquished those demons pretty well and did a good job; he threw very well and kept his pitch-count down," Dobitz said.

In the nightcap, it was more of the same but Bast turned in a pitching performance of significant mention. Bast fanned 10 en route to the win, while holding the Coyotes to two scattered hits and only 5 total baserunners. On the strength of the defense — which also played a fantastic Game 1 with only an error and 5 total baserunners to show as negatives — the Midgets were able to stifle WHS for the entire game.

"Jadon Bast is Jadon Bast, and what you saw tonight is what you're going to get," Dobitz added. "He throws a hard ball. Williston is usually a team that can really hit the ball, and to keep them down on the hits is a big deal, and both of our pitchers trust their off-speed stuff and that's what got Williston a little bit tonight."

Offensively in Game 2, Jack Price went 2-for-4 with 4RBI while Krieg, Olson and Rodakowski all scored 2 runs apiece and Jilek drove in 2 more. But the real story was how the Midgets took advantage of 5 hit-batsmen and never took their feet off the gas despite the dominating opening win, which can at times leave teams flat in Game 2 of a twin-bill.

"I keep telling them, 'Do not take your foot off the gas, because when you take your foot off the gas and start coasting, they're going to come up from behind and they may get you,'" Dobitz said. "What I'm real happy with is our pitching and it's good to see that we're starting to barrel some balls and our hitting is coming along, too."

Dickinson travels to Sanford Sports Complex on Tuesday, May 9 to play Bismarck High School, which is currently mired amidst a 3-7 WDA record and is 4-10 overall in the 2023 season.

For more information about the Dickinson High School Midget baseball team, please keep reading your Dickinson Press or visit

https://www.wdasports.org/dickinson-baseball-2023.html

. and /or

https://www.dickinson.k12.nd.us/schools/dhs/athletics/index

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Box scores:

Game 1

WIL 001 00x — 1 2 4

DHS 630 8xx — 17 14 1

Batting:

2B — Davin Seibel, Colin Tschetter. 3B — Camden Kubas, Jadon Bast. TB — Bast 3, Seibel 3, Tschetter 3, Kubas 3, Landon Olson 2, Jace Kovash 2, Jeremiah Jilek 2, Jack Price 1, Kaeden Krieg 1. HBP — Krieg. SF — Jilek. SB — Aidon Rodakowski, Jacob Lucas, Tschetter, Krieg.

Pitching:

Chase Selle — 5IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 4K

Game 2

WIL 000 00 — 0 2 1

DHS 045 01 — 10 6 1

Batting

2B — Bast. TB — Bast 2, Price 2, , Krieg 1, Kovash 1, Olson 1. HBP — Kovash, Kubas, Rodakowski, Lucas, Olson. SF — Jilek. SB — Kovash, Lucas, Price.

Pitching:

Bast — 5IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 10K