The West Central Royal 14U teener team placed third after splitting a couple of games in Flandreau at the I-29 League Tournament on Saturday, June 5th and Sunday, June 6th.
West Central’s first game was a close 4-2 victory over Hamlin on Saturday. Cooper Mulder got West Central on the board in the first inning after scoring on a passed ball. West Central added three more in the bottom of the third. Gavin DeHaven, Mulder, and Landen Holewa all scored on Hamlin errors to give West Central a 4-0 lead. Hamlin scored two in the top of the fourth, but West Central hung on for the win.
Holewa had a double, and Mulder had the other hit for West Central. Anthony Lanham pitched 4 1/3 innings allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Holewa pitched 2/3 of an inning and had one strikeout.
West Central faced Dell Rapids in the 3rd/4th place game on Sunday. The two teams went back and forth, but Dell Rapids ended up with the 14-11 victory.
Dell Rapids scored four runs in the top of the first and two more in the top of the second for an early 6-0 lead. Quincy Stephens scored on a wild pitch and Lanham scored on a passed ball to cut the lead to 6-2. Cody Opitz stole home later in the inning, and Lando Whiting scored on an error to make the score 6-4 after the second inning. After Dell Rapids scored one run in the top of the third, West Central scored three times in the bottom of the inning. Stone Loof scored on a wild pitch, Stephens scored on a passed ball, and Tyler Warne had an RBI single to tie the game 7-7.
Dell Rapids regained the lead with a run in the top of the fourth inning, but West Central took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with three more runs. Mulder drove home two with a double, and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Holewa for a 10-8 lead. Dell Rapids, though, scored three more in the top of the fifth and three in the top of the seventh for a 14-10 lead. Whiting brought home a run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI ground-out, but that was all West Central could get in the final inning.
Mulder had two hits, one double, with two RBIs. Loof had two hits. Warne had a hit and an RBI. Whiting and Holewa both had RBIs. Holewa pitched three innings allowing seven runs, six earned, on eight hits with four walks and six strikeouts. Whiting pitched three inings allowing six runs, five earned, on three hits with eight walks and three strikeouts. Stephens pitched one inning allowing one earned run on a hit and a walk.