The West Central 14U baseball team took home a fourth place finish at the 2021 South Dakota VFW 14U Class A State Tournament held in Vermillion Friday, July 23rd through Sunday, July 25th.
West Central opened the tournament with a game against Spearfish on Friday. West Central took the lead right away in the top of the first inning with a run. They added another run in the top of the fourth inning for a 2-0 lead. The big inning for West Central came in the top of the fifth when they scored four times for a 6-0 advantage. Spearfish cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fifth with three runs, but West Central got an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning for the 7-3 victory.
CJ DenBoer had three hits in the game. Caden Alfson had two hits, a double and triple, with an RBI. Jesse Jost had a hit and two RBIs. Keaton Vessells had a double. Landen Holewa, Jack Sebert, and Cain Grocott all had a single. Lando Whiting had an RBI. Anthony Lanham pitched 4 2/3 innings allowing three runs, none of them earned, on two hits with six walks and two strikeouts. Sebert pitched 2 1/3 innings allowing just one hit with two strikeouts.
West Central then met the host team, Vermillion, in the semifinals on Saturday. West Central built an early lead. Sebert had an RBI single in the first inning, Holewa reached on an error that also scored Grocott in the top of the second inning, and Sebert then had an RBI ground out in the third inning to give West Central a 3-0 lead. Vermillion got a run back in the bottom of the third to make the score 3-1. Vermillion plated another run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Vermillion completed the comeback with two runs in the bottom of the seventh for the 4-3 win.
Jost had two hits. Sebert had a hit and two RBIs. Whiting also had a hit. Alfson pitched 5 2/3 innings allowing two runs, one earned, on two hits with four walks and nine strikeouts. Holewa pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two runs, one earned, on four walks and one strikeout.
West Central finished the tournament against Winner in the 3rd/4th place game on Sunday. Winner got the first score in the top of the first inning. West Central tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI sacrifice fly by Alfson. Winner got two runs in the top of the fifth, which proved to be the difference as Winner took the game by a score of 3-1.
Nick Lorang, Jost, and Holewa all had a single in the game. Alfson had an RBI. Vessells pitched two innings allowing an earned run on a hit with four walks and a strikeout. Jost pitched 4 1/3 innings allowing two runs, neither of them earned, on four hits with four walks and three strikeouts. Sebert pitched 2/3 of an inning.