Headed to State: Watertown Post 17 Junior Legion, Milbank Post 9 Legion teams advance
The Watertown Post 17 Junior Legion and Milbank Post 9 American Legion baseball teams each punched their tickets to state tournaments with victories over the weekend.
The Watertown Post 17 Legion team, however, fell short of qualifying for its state tournament.
Here's a wrap up of results from postseason tournaments:
Class A Legion
Watertown, the No. 12 seed, suffered 11-1 and 5-0 losses to fifth-seeded Sioux Falls East in a best-of-three, state-qualifying series.
East used a four-run rally in the bottom of the first inning to take control in Friday's opener.
Post 17 scored its only run in the second inning on a fielder's choice ground out by Carson Mutschler. Braedon Zaug doubles and Drew Denzer and Will Engstrom each singled. Andrew Czech took the loss on the mound.
East (32-13) also started fast in Saturday's game, plating two runs in the first and three more in the second against Watertown starter Jerod Cyrus.
Post 17, which ended its season with a 21-37 record, had two hits in the game. They were singles by Ryan Roby and Zaug.
East opens play Wednesday in the state Class A tournament at Fitzgerald Stadium in Rapid City. The double-elimination tourney concludes on Sunday.
State Class A Pairings — Thursday's games include Brookings (29-11-1) vs. Pierre (19-20) at 10 a.m., Mitchell (25-13) vs. Rapid City Post 320 (33-16) at 12:30 p.m., Sioux Falls East (32-13) vs. Brandon Valley (28-13) at 4 p.m. and Harrisburg (17-15) vs. host Rapid City Post 22 (36-23) at 7 p.m.
Class A Junior Legion
Third-seeded Watertown advanced to the state Class A Junior Legion tournament with 6-5 and 13-0 wins over No. 13 Yankton in games played Friday night and Saturday afternoon at Watertown Stadium.
Yankton (13-20) gave Post 17 (33-13) all it wanted in Friday's first game, leading 2-0 and 3-2. Yankton snapped a 3-3 tie in the top of the sixth when Hunter Teichroew tripled in the go-ahead run and also scored on an error on the play.
Watertown tied the game on Kaden Rylance's two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Nash Berg single with one-out in the bottom of the seventh. Pinch runner Peyton Buisker stole second and scored on Trey Himmerich's two-out single to right.
Carter Beynon had two hits and Austin Johnson also doubled for Watertown. Talan Jurgens earned the win with four innings of relief.
A seven-run third inning and a sixth-run fifth inning powered Watertown to the series-clinching win on Sunday.
Johnson smacked a two-run double and Hayden Ries added a two-run single in the third for Watertown. Dylon Rawdon also drove in a run with a single.
In the fifth, Watertown got a two-run double from Wientjes, run-scoring doubles from Rylance and Rawdon, a sac fly from Mason Krause and a fielder's choice groundout from Mitch Olson.
Justin Remmers tossed a one-hitter in the five-inning victory.
The state tourney runs Thursday through Saturday at Harmodon Park in Sioux Falls. The teams are split in two four-team pools and will play three games each. The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals on Sunday, followed by the championship.
State Class A Pairings — Thursday: Renner (22-14) vs. Brandon Valley (21-18) at noon, Rapid City Post 22 Bullets (48-4) vs. Rapid City Post 22 Expos (39-12-1) at 2:30 p.m., Sioux Falls East (33-11) vs. Watertown Post 17 (33-13) at 5 p.m. and Brookings (18-18-2) vs. host Sioux Falls West (14-22-1) at 7:30 p.m.
Friday: Watertown vs. Brandon Valley, noon; Rapid City Bullets vs. Brookings, 2:30 p.m.; Sioux Falls East vs. Renner, 5 p.m. and Rapid City Expos vs. Sioux Falls West, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: Watertown vs. Renner, 10:30 a.m.; Rapid City Expos vs. Brookings, 1 p.m.; Sioux Falls East vs. Brandon Valley, 3:30 p.m.; Rapid City Bullets vs. Sioux Falls West, 6 p.m.
Sunday: Semifinals at 9:30 a.m. and noon. Championship at 2:30 p.m.
Class B Regions
Milbank (18-7) completed a 3-0 run through the Region 1B tournament at Webster with a 12-2 championship game win over defending champion Big Stone City on Friday.
Milbank also defeated Castlewood 13-3 and Claremont 10-0 in the tourney.
Isaac Schulte fanned 11 batters in 4 2/3 innings for Milbank in the win over Castlewood. Bryce Lamp smacked three hits and Merik Junker and Mike Karges each two.
Kellen Hoeke tossed a three-hitter in the win over Claremont. Junker collected four hits, Karges three and Kaden Krause two.
Krause fanned 10 batters in five innings in the championship against Big Stone City. Junker collected three hits and Auden Rabe and Hoeke two apiece.
In the Region 2B tournament at Dell Rapids, host Dell Rapids came out of the loser's bracket to defeated Volga twice (11-8 and 18-8) to advance to state. Volga ended its season with a 13-8 record.
In the Region 5B tournament at Humboldt, host Hartford-Humboldt stopped Lake Norden-Badger's bid to return to the state tournament with a 7-5 win in Saturday's championship game.
In the Region 6B tournament at Redfield, Redfield took home the championship. Groton eliminated Clark-Willow Lake 23-6 on Thursday before Redfield downs Groton 13-10 in the title game.
The state tournament runs Friday through Tuesday, Aug. 2 at Gregory. Official pairings were not available Saturday night.
District 1B Amateur Baseball
The double-elimination tournament opens Saturday in Lake Norden and continues through Thursday. Five of the seven teams will advance to the state Class B tournament Aug. 3-14 at Mitchell.
Saturday's scores included No. 2 seed Volga Cormorants over No. 7 Bryant Wild Hogs 13-3, No. 3 Lake Norden Lakers over No. 6 Aurora Aces 15-0 and No. 4 Castlewood Monarchs over No. 5 Clark Traders 4-3.
Noah Puetz tossed a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts for Volga. Austin Buysse, Parker Puetz and Cole Gross each had two hits.
Kellen Benck doubled and drove in two runs and also tossed a complete-game victory for Castlewood, which trailed 3-2 before scoring single runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings.
Wesley Jones went the distance in the loss for Clark, which got two hits from Rhett Florey.
Three games are scheduled for Sunday with one game set for 8 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Baseball teams from Milbank and Watertown qualify for state tournaments
