The Dell Rapids high school baseball team finished their trip to the Black Hills with four games in Rapid City over three days. They faced St Thomas More on Thursday, March 26th, Rapid City Central and Rapid City Stevens on Friday, March 27th, and finally Rapid City Christian on Saturday, March 28th. They won three of the four games.
Dell Rapids 3, St Thomas More 0
A 0-0 tie through five innings was broken in the top of the sixth inning. Drake Eastman had an RBI sacrifice fly to put Dell Rapids on the board, 1-0. Jackson Peppel would score on a wild pitch later in the inning for a 2-0 lead. Dell Rapids would add another run in the top of the seventh for the 3-0 win.
Eastman had a single and an RBI. Jake Heinitz had a double, and Peppel finished with a single. Cam Jones pitched five innings and allowed three hits and four walks with five strikeouts. Owen Bollock pitched 2/3 of an inning allowing two walks. Gauge Bunkers threw 1 1/3 innings and struck out two batters.
Dell Rapids 19, Rapid City Central 2
The offense for Dell Rapids exploded for 10 runs in the top of the second to help lead the way to victory. Dell Rapids scored a run in the top of the first and then added the 10 runs for an 11-0 lead. Rapid City Central got two runs in the bottom of the second. Dell Rapids would then get another run in the third and put the game away for good with seven more runs in the top of the fourth.
Dell Rapids only had four total hits in the game as they took advantage of 15 walks. Peppel had two hits, including a double, with three RBIs. Connor Hanson had a double and an RBI. Eastman added a single. Bollock, Rhett Thoreson, and Heinitz each had an RBI. Joe Trumbauer pitched four innings and allowed two runs, both unearned, on three hits and a walk with two strikeouts.
Rapid City Stevens 9, Dell Rapids 0
Stevens held Dell Rapids to just two hits in the game, two singles by Kenny Swanson. Rapid City Stevens scored two runs in the first, two in the second, and two more in the fourth for a 6-0 lead. They added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Hanson pitched 1 2/3 innings allowing four runs, three earned, on four hits and three walks with a strikeout. AJ Brandenburg pitched 2 1/3 innings giving up two earned runs on two hits and two walks with a strikeout. Peppel pitched an inning and allowed three earned runs on one hit and a walk. Bollock pitched one inning and struck out one batter.
Dell Rapids 9, Rapid City Christian 5
The westward road trip ended with a 9-5 win over Rapid City Christian on Saturday. Dell Rapids scored in the first four innings to build a lead they would not lose. They scored a run in the first, two in the second, one in the third, and three more in the top of the fourth for a 7-0 lead. Rapid City Christian got one run back in the bottom of the fourth. Dell Rapids added two more in the top of the sixth to make the score 9-1. Rapid City Christian rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 9-5, but that would be it for the game.
Heinitz finished with two singles and an RBI. Hanson had a double with two RBIs. Eastman, Swanson, and Bunkers all had a hit and an RBI. Peppel also had a single. Thomas LaVoy ended with two RBIs, and Carson Maeschen had one RBI. Eastman threw five innings and allowed four runs, two earned, on two hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts. Stubbe pitched two innings and gave up an earned run on two hits with two strikeouts.
