The Tri-Valley 17U baseball team took second place at the 2026 South Dakota VFW JV State Tournament hosted by Clear Lake and Estelline on Saturday, August 1st through Sunday, August 2nd. The team finished 3-2 overall at the tournament.
Tri-Valley 10, Britton 3 – Pool Play, Saturday
A big third inning helped Tri-Valley to a win in their first pool-play game on Saturday. Tri-Valley scored two times in the bottom of the second and then added eight runs in the third for a 10-0 lead. Britton put three runs on the board in the top of the fourth inning.
Lawson Schneiderman had a double and single with three RBIs. Parker Atwood added a double with three RBIs. Patrick Tromblee had a single with two RBIs. Gerrit Koopman ended with a single and an RBI. Dante Kraft had a double, and Evan Focken had an RBI. Schneiderman pitched four innings and allowed three earned runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts.
Platte 10, Tri-Valley 6 – Pool Play, Saturday
Platte broke a 1-1 tie with a six-run top of the second for a 7-1 lead. Tri-Valley cut the lead down to 7-4 with three runs in the bottom of the third. Platte would get a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth to push their lead to 10-4. Tri-Valley scored two times in the bottom of the fifth.
Atwood had two hits and two RBIs. Kraft added two hits with an RBI. Koopman also had two singles. Schneiderman and Will Winter each had a single.
Tri-Valley 12, West Central 4 – Pool Play, Saturday
West Central took the lead in the bottom of the first, 2-0, with two runs. Tri-Valley cut the lead in half with a run in the top of the second. They would go in front 5-2 with a four-run top of the fourth. West Central got a run back in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 5-3. Tri-Valley put the game away with a seven-run top of the fifth. West Central scored just one more time in the bottom of the fifth.
Focken and Kraft each had a double and single in the game. Winter finished with two singles. Reed Smith added a double with two RBIs. Schneiderman had a single and two RBIs. Blake Schmidt added a hit with an RBI. Abbott Moeller and Atwood both had an RBI in the game. Atwood pitched four innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits and four walks with four strikeouts.
Tri-Valley 14, Salem 9 – Bracket Play, Sunday
Bracket play started with some excitement on Sunday. Tri-Valley scored three times in the top of the first. Salem had a run in the bottom of the inning. Tri-Valley added two more runs in the top of the second. Salem responded with three runs in the bottom of the second to make the score 5-4. Tri-Valley was able to keep the offense going. They scored two runs in the top of the third, one in the fourth, and four more in the top of the fifth to extend their lead to 12-4. Salem scored a run in the bottom of the fifth and two more in the sixth to cut the lead to 12-7. Each team put two runs on the board in the seventh inning.
Winter had two hits and two RBIs. Focken had a single and double with an RBI. Koopman added two singles with an RBI. Schneiderman and Kraft both had a single and an RBI. Atwood ended with two RBIs, and Smith had one RBI.
Platte 1, Tri-Valley 0 – Championship, Sunday
A defensive battle in the championship game ended in walk-off fashion. Unfortunately for Tri-Valley, it was Platte that scored the run in the bottom of the seventh with two outs on a single to win the game 1-0.
Koopman finished with two hits in the game. Moeller, Focken, and Smith all had one hit each. Smith pitched six innings and allowed six hits and a walk with five strikeouts. Moeller tossed 2/3 of an inning and allowed an earned run on a hit and two walks.
