West Central baseball earned a spot in the State B Tournament with two wins in Region 3B play on Tuesday, May 24th.  West Central defeated Baltic 4-0 and Sioux Falls Christian 12-7.

West Central 4, Baltic 0

Jack Linneman drove home the first run for West Central in the bottom of the first inning.  Gavin Koch gave West Central a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI sacrifice fly.  The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning.  Logan Maras had a one-out RBI double, and Koch had an RBI ground out to put West Central ahead 4-0.

Duece Sherrard had three hits.  Maras had two hits, one a double, and an RBI.  Koch had a hit and two RBIs.  Linneman finished with a single and an RBI.  Grafton Stroup also had a hit.  Andrew Zimmer pitched six innings giving up just three hits and four walks while striking out six.  Stroup pitched an inning and allowed a hit while striking out two.

West Central 12, Sioux Falls Christian 7

West Central scored in every inning but one and had 15 total hits in a 12-7 win to advance to the state tournament.

Sherrard scored on an error, and Linneman had an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning.  Sioux Falls Christian took a lead after scoring three runs in the top of the second.  West Central, however, scored two more times in the bottom of the second.  Koch had an RBI triple, and Sherrard followed with an RBI single for a 4-3 lead.

Sioux Falls Christian tied the game with a run in the top of the third, but again, West Central regained the lead.  Ben Sebert had an RBI single, and Koch had another RBI single for a 6-4 lead.  West Central then added four runs in the bottom of the fourth.  Linneman had an RBI single, Camden McDonald reached on an error that scored a run, and Sebert had a two-run single.

The Chargers pulled within two runs, 10-7, after scoring three times in the top of the fifth.  West Central got two insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth.  Stroup scored on a passed ball, and Maras had an RBI ground out.  Sioux Falls Christian only had one base runner in the final two innings of the game.

Koch had two hits, one a triple, and two RBIs.  Sebert had three hits and three RBIs.  Linneman had two singles and two RBIs.  Sherrard, Maras, and McDonald all had two hits and an RBI.  Stroup and Caden Alfson each had a hit.

West Central will play Dakota Valley in the opening round of the State B Tournament at 5:05 p.m. on Monday, May 30th at the Birdcage in Sioux Falls.

The West Central High School club baseball team won two more games on Tuesday, May 17th.  The two wins pushed their winning streak to eight games.  The last loss came against Dell Rapids on April 24th.

West Central 7, Flandreau/Chester 1

Two runs in the bottom of the first inning was enough, but West Central took a 7-1 win over Flandreau/Chester at home.

Jack Linneman got the scoring going with a two-run single in the first inning.  Grafton Stroup scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third for a 3-0 lead.  Flandreau/Chester scored their lone run in the top of the fourth.  Stroup had an RBI single, and Caden Alfson had an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning.  Stroup added another RBI hit in the sixth inning.

Stroup had three hits and two RBIs.  Alfson had a double and an RBI.  Linneman finished with a hit and an RBI.  Derek Renken had a single, and Zach Madsen had an RBI.  Andrew Zimmer pitched all seven innings allowing an earned run on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

West Central 6, Garretson 1

Braden Herr threw a no-hitter while striking out 10 batters in a 6-1 win for West Central.  The run scored by Garretson came in the top of the first inning and was unearned due to an error.

West Central took the lead in the bottom of the second inning.  Logan Maras reached on an error that scored Camden McDonald.  Gavin Koch followed that with an RBI single.  Alfson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, and Madsen had an RBI sacrifice fly to make the score 4-1.  Koch had an RBI sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, and Duece Sherrard followed with an RBI single.

Sherrard had three hits and an RBI.  Koch had two hits and two RBIs.  McDonald finished with a double.  Stroup, Brodie Herr, Ben Sebert, and Maras all had hits.  Aflson and Madsen each had an RBI.

Playing in their second game of the evening, West Central scored six runs in the first three innings which was enough to defeat the Mt Vernon/Plankinton/Corsica-Stickney (MVPCS) Padres on Monday, May 16th.

Zach Madsen drove home the first run in the bottom of the first inning with a single to right field.  The Trojans scored two more runs in the bottom of the second on a two-run double by Caden Alfson. 

MVPCS cut the lead to 3-2 after scoring two times in the top of the third inning, but West Central’s offense scored three times in the bottom of the inning.  Ben Sebert brought home a run with a single.  Grafton Stroup then added a two-run double to push the lead to 6-2.  Those were the last runs scored in the game.

Stroup had four hits, including a double, and two RBIs.  Alfson finished with two hits, one a double, and two RBIs.  Madsen and Sebert both had singles with an RBI.  Brodie Herr pitched 4 1/3 innings without allowing a hit while striking out four to earn the win.  Madsen pitched 2 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

West Central scored three runs in the final two innings to get a come-from-behind walk-off win over Tri-Valley on Monday, May 16th in Humboldt.

Neither team scored through the first three innings of play.  Tri-Valley scored both of their runs in the top of the fourth inning.  With two outs in the inning, Carter Sorenson hit a two-run double scoring Nathan Madison and Connor Christensen.

West Central cut the lead in half in the bottom of the sixth inning when Zach Madsen hit an RBI double scoring Grafton Stroup.  The score remained 2-1 heading into the seventh inning.  After Tri-Valley failed to add any more runs in their half of the seventh, West Central put together a one-out rally.  Ben Sebert reached on an error.  Gavin Koch followed with a single.  Camden McDonald hit a double that scored Sebert to tie the game.  Duece Sherrard drove home Koch with a single to center field to win the game.

Sorenson had two hits, one a double, with two RBIs for Tri-Valley.  Riley Carlson had two singles.  Christensen and Madison also each had a single in the game.  Kaden Egger pitched 6 1/3 innings giving up three runs, two earned, on seven hits while striking out six.

For the West Central Trojans, McDonald had two hits, one a double, and an RBI.  Sherrard also had two hits and an RBI.  Madsen had a double and an RBI.  Jack Linneman and Koch each had a single as well.

West Central won their fourth straight game after a 7-3 win over Sioux Falls Christian on Tuesday, May 10th.

West Central took an early four run lead after the first two innings.  Caden Alfson drove home two runs in the first inning with a single.  Logan Maras had a solo home run, and Grafton Stroup added an RBI single in the bottom of the second inning.

Sioux Falls Christian got a run in the top of the third inning and then added two more in the top of the fourth inning to pull within a run, 4-3.  The score remained 4-3 until the bottom of the sixth.  Duece Sherrard had a two-run triple, and Stroup followed with an RBI triple to put West Central ahead 7-3.

Sherrard had three hits, including the triple, and two RBIs.  Stroup had two hits, one a triple, and two RBIs.  Alfson also had two hits and two RBIs.  Maras finished with a home run and an RBI, and Gavin Koch had a single.  Andrew Zimmer pitched all seven innings allowing three runs, two earned, on seven hits and two walks while striking out six.