The Dell Rapids 16U baseball team brought home third place at the 2022 South Dakota VFW Class A State Tournament hosted by Dakota Valley in North Sioux City Friday, August 5th through Sunday, August 7th.
Dell Rapids 8, Volga 0
Dell Rapids slowly pulled away from Volga for an 8-0 win in the opening round of the state tournament on Friday. Talan Millage drove home the first run with an RBI ground out in the top of the second inning. Mason Stubbe started the third with a triple and then scored on an RBI ground out by Tad Tjaden for a 2-0 lead.
Dell Rapids then got three runs in the top of the fifth. Lincoln Fersdahl had an RBI sacrifice fly, and Sutton Williams had a two-run single for a 5-0 lead. Stubbe had an RBI single in the top of the sixth. Cooper Frost added an RBI single in the top of the seventh, and Fersdahl scored the eighth run on a wild pitch.
Stubbe had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI. Frost also had two hits and an RBI. Williams finished with a single and two RBIs. Tjaden and Millage each had a single and RBI. Cole Ruesink had two hits. Luke Schoolmeester added a single, and Fersdahl had an RBI. Millage pitched all seven innings and allowed nine hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.
Wagner 5, Dell Rapids 0
Dell Rapids met Wagner in the semi-finals on Saturday, but was held to just four hits in the game in a 5-0 win for Wagner. Wagner scored four times in the bottom of the second inning, and the score remained 4-0 until the sixth. They would add one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Fersdahl had two hits for Dell Rapids. Quinn Carr had a double, and Williams added a single. Tjaden pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs, but only one earned, on five hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts. Konrad Richeal pitched 1/3 of an inning and allowed a hit and a walk.
Dell Rapids 11, West Central 3
A big sixth inning for Dell Rapids helped them to an 11-2 win over West Central on Sunday to take third place in the state tournament.
Dell Rapids did score three times right away in the top of the first inning. Frost had a two-run single, and Williams scored on a balk for an early 3-0 lead. Millage added an RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the third to push the lead to 4-0. West Central cut the lead in half, 4-2, with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Fersdahl had an RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth inning, and then Dell Rapids added six more runs in the top the sixth. Tjaden had an RBI double, Micah Pickard scored on a wild pitch, and Ruesink had an RBI single for an 8-2 lead. Frost added two more RBIs with a single, and Millage had an RBI single for the sixth run of the inning. West Central got one run in the bottom of the seventh.
Ruesink finished with three hits and an RBI. Frost had two hits and four RBIs. Millage added two hits and two RBIs. Tjaden had a double and RBI. Fersdahl also had a hit and an RBI. Schoolmeester had two hits. Williams, Grady Lamer, and Pickard all collected a hit.
Carr pitched 3 1/3 innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on two hits and five walks with four strikeouts. Fersdahl pitched three innings and allowed an earned run on a hit and seven walks with three strikeouts. Richeal pitched the final 2/3 of an inning allowing one hit and recording a strikeout.