The West Central 16U run through the Region 1A tournament came to an end on Wednesday, July 28th. Wagner scored seven late runs and held off a West Central rally to get an 11-9 victory and advance to the championship game.
West Central scored first in the top of the first inning. Camden McDonald and Andrew Zimmer both had RBI ground outs for an early 2-0 lead. Wagner cut the lead in half with a run in the bottom of the first. West Central got another run in the top of the second on an RBI ground out by Will Nester. Wagner, however, took the lead in the bottom of the second with three runs and led 4-3 after two innings of play.
West Central regained the lead in in the top of the third on a two-run single by Gage Nelson. The lead extended to 6-4 after McDonald reached on an error which also scored Nester. The big inning for Wagner came in the bottom of fifth when they scored four runs to get an 8-6 lead. Wagner added three more in the bottom of the sixth to push the lead to 11-6. West Central put a little rally together in the top of the seventh. Dylan Stromer had an RBI single. Dalton Mulder scored on an error, and Nelson had an RBI ground out to cut the lead to 11-9, but that rally was stopped there.
Stromer had three hits and an RBI. Nelson finished with two hits and three RBIs. Zimmer had two hits, one a double, and an RBI. Dylan Sherard had two hits. Nester had a hit and an RBI, and Justin Zirpel had a double. Cade Vander Woude pitched five innings and allowed eight earned runs on 13 hits with five strikeouts. Zirpel pitched an inning allowing three runs, none of them earned, on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts.
Even though the regional tournament is over for West Central, they still finished in the top four of the region to qualify for the state tournament. The 2021 South Dakota VFW 16U Class A State Tournament will be held in Madison August 6th – 8th.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Central 16U | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 2 |
| Wagner 16U | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | X | 11 | 14 | 4 |