The Dell Rapids Legion baseball team will kick off region tournament play on Thursday, July 18th, in Madison.  Dell Rapids will be facing Garretson in the opening round.  Dell Rapids played Garretson in its final game of the year on Saturday, July 13th.  Garretson won the game 5-3.

Head Coach Ryan Robb said, “They are a solid baseball team that has had a good, strong program now for quite a few years.  They have a few guys that hit the ball well, and they also have a couple good arms.  Patrick Whetham and Cody Bonte are both good hitters and lead Garretson on the mound also.  We have to try and keep the ball down against those two or they will hit the ball all over the park.  Garretson has played good baseball all summer long, but I feel like overall we have played good baseball most of the summer as well.”

Weston Hansen will be anchoring the team in the infield at shortstop.  Hansen is hitting a team leading .519 with three home runs.  Nate Klein is second in the team in hitting with a .418 batting average.  Dell Rapids will also hope to get great at-bats from its lead-off hitter Tanner Solberg during the tournament.  Solberg leads the team with 17 walks on the year.  Dell Rapids will be looking to Spencer Kerzman, Zane Schumacher, and Cody Nielsen to lead the team on the mound during the regions.

Robb said, “It just comes down to us as a whole unit playing well.  Jordan (Solberg) and I have talked about team all summer long and how we have to talk and pick each other up game in and game out.  It has been a great season and this is truly a great group of young men who have made it a lot of fun.”

Season batting stats:
Hansen  –  .519
Klein  –  .418
Solberg  –  .273
Kolbeck  –  .239
Michel  –  .246
Langer  –  .250
Nielsen  –  .195
Schumacher  –  .250
Vortherms  –  .174
Kubly  –  .236
Kerzman  –  .222