The West Central 16U baseball team came home with a third place finish at the 2021 South Dakota VFW 16U Class A State Tournament held in Madison Friday, August 6th through Sunday, August 8th.

West Central opened the tournament on Friday with a big 15-3 win in six innings over Madison White.  West Central had a seven-run second inning and five-run sixth inning as their two big innings in the game.  They pounded 14 hits led by Dalton Mulder with four hits, two doubles, and four RBIs.  Dylan Sherard also had four hits and an RBI.  Camden McDonald, Justin Zirpel, and Dyaln Stromer all had a hit and two RBIs in the game.  Brayden Odegaard had a double and an RBI.  Derrick Renken had a double, and Cade Vander Woude had a hit.  Owen Heath pitched all six innings allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

In the semifinal round on Saturday, West Central tried to put together a late rally against Dakota Valley, but Dakota Valley held on for a 6-4 victory.  Dakota Valley scored a single run in the first, second, and third innings for a 3-0 lead.  West Central got a run back in the bottom of the third, but Dakota Valley scored three more times in the top of the fifth to push the lead to 6-1.  West Central had a three-run bottom of the sixth, but couldn’t quite complete the come back.

Mulder had two hits, including a double, and an RBI.  Renken had a double and an RBI.  Odegaard finished with a single and an RBI, and Sherard also had a single in the game.  Andrew Zimmer pitched 4 2/3 innings allowing six runs, five earned, on 12 hits with two walks and a strikeout.  Renken pitched 2 1/3 innings allowing just one hit along with two strikeouts.

West Central survived a late push by Wagner in the 3rd/4th place game on Sunday winning 9-7 to take home third place.  West Central scored first in the bottom of the first inning to lead 1-0.  After a Wagner run in the top of the second tied the game, West Central pushed across three runs in the bottom of the second inning.  They would add three more in the bottom of the fifth for a 7-1 lead.  Wagner rallied for four runs in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 7-5, but West Central got two big insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.  Those two runs were just enough for the win as Wagner scored two times in the top of the seventh.

Stromer had three hits and three RBIs to lead West Central.  Sherard and Renken both had a single and an RBI.  McDonald, Zirpel, and Landon Holewa each had one hit.  Vander Woude had an RBI.  Mulder pitched five innings allowing two runs, neither of them earned, on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts.  Renken pitched 2/3 of an inning allowing three runs, all unearned, on a hit with three walks and a strikeout.  Holewa pitched 1 1/3 innings allowing two earned runs on a hit with five walks and two strikeouts.

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

The West Central 16U team got two wins at the Region 1A tournament on Tuesday, July 27th after dropping their first game on Monday.  The first win qualified West Central for the state tournament, and the second win kept them alive in the region tournament as they push towards a higher seed.

West Central knocked Chamberlain out of regional tournament with an 11-3 early in the day.  West Central scored all 11 runs in the final three innings.  Chamberlain scored a run in the bottom of the fourth to break a scoreless tie, but West Central got four runs in the top of the fifth, two in the sixth, and then had a five-run seventh inning.  Chamberlain only scored two times in the bottom of the seventh.

Camden McDonald had two hits and two RBIs.  Dylan Sherard had a double and two RBIs.  Dylan Stromer and Cade Vander Woude both had a single and an RBI.  Gage Nelson and Andrew Zimmer each had a hit, and Justin Zirpel had an RBI.  Owen Heath pitched 6 2/3 innings allowing three earned runs on six hits with 10 strikeouts.  Maison Schuldt pitched 1/3 of an inning and allowed just one walk.

West Central then took on the defending state champions, Beresford, in the final game of the night in Humboldt.  After Beresford scored in the top of the first inning, West Central took control of the game in the bottom of the first and never looked back.  West Central scored five times in the bottom of the first.  Each team scored a run in the second inning putting West Central in front 6-2.  West Central then exploded for 11 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to end the game on the 15-run rule.

Zirpel had three hits, including a triple, and five RBIs.  Stromer had two hits and three RBIs.  Zimmer had a hit and three RBIs.  McDonald had a hit and an RBI.  Sherard had a hit.  Vander Woude and Schuldt each had an RBI.  Derrick Renken pitched all four innings allowing just two runs, one earned, on one hit with four walks and six strikeouts.

The West Central 16U team fell to Dakota Valley in the Region 1A tournament in Humboldt on Monday, July 26th.  West Central was held to just two hits in a 3-0 loss to Dakota Valley.

Dakota Valley got single runs in the top of the first, fourth, and sixth innings. 

Camden McDonald and Justin Zirpel had the two hits for West Central.  Andrew Zimmer pitched six innings allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts.  Owen Heath pitched an inning recording one strikeout.

West Central will play Chamberlain in an elimination game on Tuesday, July 27th, at 3:00 p.m.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Dakota Valley 16U	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	3	5	1
West Central 16U	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2