Dell Rapids Baseball claimed the 2017 South Dakota High School Baseball Association State B championship on Monday, May 29th after beating West Central and Vermillion in the four team tournament at Sioux Falls Stadium.
Dell Rapids opened up the tournament with an 11-5 win over West Central. Dell Rapids put the pressure on early and often in the opening game. After loading the bases in the bottom of the first inning, Seth Andersen earned an RBI after being hit by a pitch to give Dell Rapids a 1-0 lead after the first inning. Eddie Price hit a one-out double and later scored on a passed ball to push the lead to 2-0. Price and Josh Roemen each drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third inning to give Dell Rapids a 4-0 lead. West Central pushed a run across in the top of the fourth and had the bases loaded with one out, but Roemen got Devlin Rue to hit into an inning-ending double play to get out of a jam. Keegan Miller hit a sacrifice fly to drive home Matt Gillogly, and Dell Rapids led 5-1 after four innings of play. Gillogly then hit an RBI single in the fifth to increase the lead. After West Central scored another run in the top of the sixth inning, Dell Rapids scored five times in the bottom of the inning. Price, Roemen, Carter Gullickson, and Nate McKee all had RBI hits in the inning. West Central did score three runs in the top of the seventh, but Price retired three of the four batters he faced to close out the win for Dell Rapids.
Roemen finished the first game 3-4 with a double and two RBIs. McKee had two hits, including a double, and an RBI. Gillogly, Elijah Story, and Price also finished the game with two hits. Price also had two RBIs. Gullickson, Gillogly, Andersen, and Miller all had RBIs. Roemen picked up the win on the mound pitching six innings giving up five runs, four earned, on four hits while walking four and striking out three. Price pitched one inning of relief walking one batter and striking out one.
Dell Rapids then earned a 7-0 win the championship game over Vermillion. Vermillion defeated PG/DC/WL/C 11-1 to advance to title game. Andersen delivered the first big hit of the game for Dell Rapids in the bottom of the first. After Dell Rapids loaded the bases, Andersen hit a bases-clearing double to left field to give Dell Rapids a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Both pitchers were in control over the next three innings as the score remained 3-0 in favor of Dell Rapids after four complete innings. Andersen again drove in another run in the bottom of the fifth on a hard-hit ground ball on a drawn-in infield scoring Gullickson to give Dell Rapids a 4-0 lead. Austin Ellingson followed that hit with a two-run double to extend the lead to 6-0. The final run for Dell Rapids came in the bottom of the sixth inning on back-to-back triples by McKee and Gillogly.
Gullickson was 3-4 in the second game with a double and two runs scored. Andersen was 2-4 with a double and four RBIs. McKee, Gillogly, and Ellingson all collected hits. Ellingson had two RBIs, and Gillogly had an RBI. Trevor Pulscher pitched the complete game shutout allowing just five hits over the seven innings while walking no batters and striking out five batters.
West Central
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
West Central | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | |
Dell Rapids | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | x | 11 | 12 | 2 |
Vermillion
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
Vermillion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | |
Dell Rapids | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | x | 7 | 8 | 1 |