Lake Norden, Aberdeen still alive in state amateur baseball tournaments

MITCHELL — The Lake Norden Lakers and Aberdeen Circus Sports Bar are the only two northeastern South Dakota teams still alive heading into the final week of the 90th South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament.

District 1B representative Lake Norden (11-7) is among the 14 teams that remain in contention in the Class B tournament after Sunday night.

Host Aberdeen (11-2) split two games in the opening weekend of the state Class A tournament and is one of six teams that will head to Mitchell on Friday for the final weekend of play.

The 32-team Class B tourney is single-elimination. The eight-team Class A tourney is double-elimination.

Both the Class B and A tourneys continue through Sunday.

District 1B Teams

• Milbank Firechiefs — The Firechiefs (14-4) opened the tournament with an 8-4 win over the Akron (Iowa) Rebels on Thursday before falling to the Mount Vernon Mustangs 3-2 in a second-round game on Sunday night.

Milbank advanced behind the pitching of left-hander Dominique Boerger, a former Dakota Wesleyan University standout who tossed a complete game with 20 strikeouts in the win over Akron.

Boerger also went the distance in Sunday's loss, striking out 17 batters in eight innings.

Mount Vernon grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on a single by Eric Giblin. Milbank gained the lead with two runs in the top of third inning, scoring on a bases-loaded walk by Travis Lester and a single by Kaden Krause (a Milbank Legion player).

Mount Vernon tied the game in the bottom of the third on a single by Chase Hetland and won it on Hetland's two-out single in the bottom of the eighth.

Lance Frogner, Taylor Boerger and Justin Larson each added singles for Milbank.

In the first-round win, Frogner sparked the Firechiefs' offense with four hits and three runs batted in. T. Boerger contributed three hits and Krause, Lester and Jacob Jackson each two.

• Lake Norden — Veteran manager Burt Tulson's squad moved into the second round with a 5-3 win over the Freeman Black Sox on Saturday.

Jordon Johnson went the distance on the mound for the win, scattering seven hits with 13 strikeouts.

The Lakers trailed 2-1 before tying the game on Johnson's two-out single in the top of the sixth inning. Jesse VanOverbeke put Lake Norden ahead with a two-out, two-run single in the seventh. The Lakers added another run in the eighth on an error.

Mick Tulson and VanOverbeke each had two hits for the Lakers, who face top-rated Winner-Colome at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in a second-round game.

• Castlewood Monarchs — The Monarchs' season ended with a 7-2 loss to the Kimball-White Lake Nationals on Sunday.

Castlewood smacked 13 hits in the game, including three by Jacob Tvedt and two each by Parker Schmidt, Josh Cleveland, Lucas Ching and Rhett Florey. Florey is a pickup player from the Clark Traders.

Cleveland went the distance in the loss for Castlewood (9-13).

• Volga Cormorants — Back-to-back doubles by Micah Linn and Cody Groskruetz to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning lifted the Larchwood (Iowa) Diamonds 3-2 on Saturday in a first-round game.

Zach Puetz had two hits for Volga. Nicolai Arbach, a pickup player from the Bryant Wild Hogs, took the loss in relief of starter and North Dakota State recruit Parker Puetz.

• Aurora Aces — The Aces (6-8-1) lost to the Platte Killer Tomatoes 14-4 in another first-round game on Thursday.

Trey Tiefenthaler drove in two runs with a double and single for Aurora.

District 2B Teams

• Redfield Dairy Queen  — The Mount Vernon Mustangs jumped out a 6-0 lead after two innings and cruised to a 10-0 first-round win over Redfield Dairy Queen on Thursday.

Kole DeSpiegler had two hits for Redfield.

• Northville Merchants  — Dalton Allen and Dalton Lehner combined on a two-hitter with 12 strikeouts to guide the Dell Rapids Mudcats to a 7-0 first-round win over the Northville Merchants on Saturday. Allen went the first six innings for the win.

Max Waltman and Travis Paulsen each singled for Northville. Garrett Knox went the distance in the loss.

• Redfield Pheasants — Top-rated Winner-Colome used an eight-run second inning to roll past the Redfield Pheasants 16-1 in a first-game on Saturday.

Barrett Wren, Keith Jandel and Rafael Clemente each singled for Redfield. Clemente is a pickup player from Miller-Wessington.

Class A

• Aberdeen Circus Sports Bar — Aberdeen (11-2) fell to the top-rated Sioux Falls Hops 2-0 on Saturday, but stayed alive with a 13-3 win over the Rapid City Diamonds on Sunday.

Michael Babcock and Kelly Coates each tallied three hits and Brandon Kusler, Dalton Cox and Ryan Ellingson each two in Sunday's win. Colton Cox added a double and three RBIs. Chad Ellingson fanned seven batters to earn the complete-game win.

Sioux Falls topped Aberdeen with a complete-game pitching effort from Bryce Ahrendt and run-scoring singles from TJ Miller in the bottom of the fifth and Charlie Dubanoski in the eighth. Miller collected three hits.

Karson Hesser notched three hits for Aberdeen. Dalton Cox added a double and Max Otto fanned 13 batters in eight innings on the mound.

The Renner Monarchs and Sioux Falls Flying Squirrels each went 2-0 and will meet at 1 p.m. Friday at Cadwell Park in Mitchell. The winner advances to Sunday's Class A championship game at noon.

In games Friday at Drake Field, the Black Hills A's meet the Hops at 1:30 p.m., followed by Aberdeen taking on Brookings at 3:30 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Only two northeastern South Dakota teams left in state tournaments