West Central Gold scored in every inning but one on their way to a 13-2 win in Garretson on Tuesday, June 29th.

The scoring started right away for West Central as they scored three times without a hit by taking advantage of six walks.  After Garretson got a run in the bottom of the first, West Central scored two more times in the top of the second.  Jesse Jost hit a triple and then scored on the throw.  Nick Lorang scored on an error, and West Central led 5-1 after the first two innings.

Four more runs came across the plate in the top of the third.  Caden Alfson had an RBI sacrifice fly, Keaton Vessells had an RBI single and then later scored on a wild pitch, and N. Lorang scored on another error for a 9-1 lead.  Garretson’s final run came in the bottom of the third.

One more run scored for West Central in the top of the fourth. Alfson had an RBI single to push the lead to 10-2.  The final three runs were scored in the top of the sixth inning.  Jack Sebert and Alfson had hits that produced runs, and Vessells had an RBI sacrifice fly.

Sebert had three hits and an RBI.  Alfson finished with two hits and three RBIs.  Jost had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI.  Vessells had a hit and two RBIs.  Zach Lorang and Carter Evans both had a hit and RBI.  N. Lorang had a hit.

N. Lorang pitched four innings allowing two runs, one earned, on two hits with five walks and two strikeouts.  Alfson pitched an inning and struck out three batters.  Sebert also pitched an inning allowing one hit.

West Central 14U Gold took advantage of four errors in the bottom of the sixth inning and scored two runs to get a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Baltic on Wednesday, June 23rd.

Baltic scored their run in the top of the first inning when Beau Breece scored on a steal of home.  The score remained 1-0 through most of the game as the two starting pitchers combined to strikeout 17 batters through six innings of play.

Cooper Mulder started the sixth inning by reaching on an error on a fly ball to left field.  Nick Lorang followed by reaching on an error by the second baseman.  Both Mulder and N. Lorang stole a base later in the inning.  Evan Jaton hit a ground ball to shortstop, but reached on an error as Mulder scored the tying run.  Seth Lind followed that at bat with a ground ball to second base also reaching on an error that allowed N. Lorang to score the go-ahead run.

West Central was held to just two hits in the game.  Zach Lorang and N. Lorang both had singles.  Brody Jacobson pitched six innings allowing one earned run on two hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.  Caden Alfson pitched the final inning for the win by striking out all three batters.

West Central Gold 14U (10-2) played two games on back-to-back nights, winning one and losing the other.

West Central hosted Elkton on Monday, June 21st getting an 11-1 win in five innings.  West Central scored four times in the bottom of the first, two in the second, one in the third, and then four in the bottom of the fifth to end the game on the 10-run rule.

Caden Alfson had two home runs and five RBIs in the game.  Seth Lind had two hits, including a double, and two RBIs.  Zach Lorang had two hits and an RBI.  Brody Jacobson collected two singles.  Jack Sebert had a double and an RBI.  Nick Lorang pitched 2 2/3 innings allowing one earned run on three hits with one walk and two strikeouts.  Sebert pitched two innings allowing a hit with four strikeouts.

West Central then welcomed Dell Rapids to town on Tuesday, June 22nd.  Dell Rapids took a 6-1 lead heading into the bottom of the second inning eventually increasing that lead to 13-4 after five innings.  West Central rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth, but Dell Rapids held on for the win.

Cooper Mulder had three hits and four RBIs.  Alfson had a hit with two RBIs.  Jacob Kono had a hit and an RBI.  Brody Jacobson had two hits, and Evan Jaton had a double.  Kono pitched two innings allowing six earned runs on three hits with four walks and a strikeout.  Jaton pitched three innings allowing seven runs, five earned, on seven hits with four walks and two strikeouts.  Seth Lind pitched an inning allowing a hit and two walks along with a strikeout.  Alfson pitched an inning and recorded three strikeouts.

The West Central Gold 14U team scored a big road win on Thursday, June 10th.  West Central defeated Volga 26-4 in five innings.

The visitors scored first with two runs in the top of the first inning.  Volga responded with a run in the bottom of the inning, and West Central led 2-1 after the first inning.  West Central would add four more runs in the top of the second to extend the lead to 6-1.  Volga pulled within two runs, 6-4, after three runs in the bottom of the third inning.  Then West Central scored 20 straight runs.  They scored six times in the fourth inning and then plated 14 runs in the top of the fifth.

West Central had a total of 16 hits with eight different players getting a hit in the game.  Jesse Jost had four hits and three RBIs.  Keaton Vessells had three hits, one of them a double, with four RBIs.  Cain Grocott also had three hits, one of them a triple, and four RBIs.  Nick Lorang had two hits, one a double, with two RBIs.  Caden Alfson finished with a double and three RBIs.  Jack Sebert and Seth Lind both had a hit and two RBIs.   Jacob Kono also had a hit.

Vessells pitched two innings allowing one earned run on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts.  Sebert pitched an inning allowing three earned runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts.  Lorang pitched two innings of no-hit baseball with two strikeouts.

Coming off of a second place finish at the I-29 League Tournament, West Central Gold 14U scored a big win over Tea Nave 14U 15-3 in five innings on Wednesday, June 9th.

The game was close through four innings of play.  Keaton Vessells had an RBI double in the top of the first inning for an early 1-0 West Central lead.  West Central then scored three times in the top of third.  Jesse Jost scored on a wild pitch, Cain Grocott had an RBI sacrifice pop out, and Vessells scored on an error to push the lead to 4-0.  Tea responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third inning to make the score 4-3.  Neither team scored in the fourth inning.

Then West Central’s offense took advantage of nine walks in the top of the fifth inning.  Three timely hits combined with the nine walks led to 11 runs in the inning to blow the game open and send West Central home with the win.

Caden Alfson had a triple with three RBIs in the fifth inning.  Vessells finished with a double and an RBI.  Carter Evens had a hit with two RBIs.  Jack Sebert, Grocott, Nick Lorang, and Evan Jaton all had a hit and an RBI.  Jost and Jacob Kono also had an RBI.  Jost pitched 2 1/3 innings allowing one earned run on two hits with two walks and six strikeouts.  Grocott pitched 1 2/3 innings allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts.  Alfson pitched a perfect fifth inning striking out all three batters.

The West Central Gold 14U teener team played four games at the I-29 League Tournament in Flandreau, finishing 3-1 and placing second.

West Central had two games on Friday, June 4th.  In their opening game, they defeated Tea White 13-3.  West Central scored two runs in the bottom of the second, but Tea plated three in the top of the third.  West Central responded with seven in the third, and four more in the fourth to win on the 10-run rule.

Caden Alfson had two home runs and two RBIs.  Carter Evans had two hits and two RBIs.  Jacob Kono had two hits, one double, and two RBIs.  Keaton Vessells had two hits, including a home run, and an RBI.  Jack Sebert had a double and a RBI.  Cain Grocott and Nick Lorang both had two hits.  Sebert pitched 2 2/3 innings giving up two runs, both unearned, on one hit, one walk, and two strikeouts.  Kono pitched 1 1/3 innings allowing an earned run on a hit and a strikeout.

In the second game of the day, West Central defeated Castlewood 25-3 in three innings.  They held Castlewood to just three hits.  West Central scored six in the first, 12 in the second, and seven more in the third.

Vessells had a grand slam home run as one of his three hits and had four RBIs.  Alfson had two hits, including a home run and a double, with four RBIs.  Lorang had three hits and an RBI.  Sebert had a hit with two RBIs.  Grocott had a double and two RBIs.  Seth Lind had a hit and three RBIs.  Carter Evans and Zach Lorang each had a hit.  Kono had three RBIs, and Evan Jaton had an RBI.  Vessells pitched one inning allowing two runs, one earned, on one hit with three strikeouts.  N. Lorang pitched two innings allowing an unearned run on one walk and three strikeouts.

West Central played one game on Saturday, June 5th.  Alfson pitched a no-hitter as West Central defeated Hills-Beaver Creek Red 12-0 to send them to the championship game.

Grocott had three hits, one double, with two RBIs.  Alfson had two hits, one of those a triple, with two RBIs.  Sebert also had a hit.  Alfson pitched four innings with nine strikeouts and three walks.

In the championship game on Sunday, June 6th, West Central ran into a tough Madison Gold team.  Madison scored five runs in the top of the first inning and cruised from their as they defeated West Central 20-2 in six innings.

Alfson had a double with two RBIs.  N. Lorang had the other hit.  Vessells pitched one inning allowing five runs, none of them earned, on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts.  Sebert pitched three innings allowing five runs, two earned, on six hits with two walks.  Grocott pitched 1 2/3 innings allowing nine runs, one earned, on no hits with eight walks and a strikeout.  Lind pitched the final 1/3 of an inning allowing an earned run on a hit and three walks.