The West Central 17U Gold baseball team faced the Claremont Honkers in a best-of-three series to qualify for the 2025 South Dakota VFW State Tournament. The first game was on Monday, July 14th and the second game was on Wednesday, July 16th. Claremont won both games to punch their ticket to the state tournament.
July 14th – Claremont 4, West Central Gold 3
West Central took the lead right away in the bottom of the first in the opening game of the series. Taylan Sichmeller scored on an error, and Noah Erickson had an RBI single to put West Central ahead 2-0. Claremont would rally in the top of the fourth and score three times to go in front 3-2. They added another run in the top of the fourth. Cooper Ball had an RBI single for West Central in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 4-3. West Central had the bases loaded with only one out in the bottom of the seventh, but a force out at home and a ground ball to first ended the game.
Erickson finished with two hits, one a double, and an RBI. Ball had a single with an RBI. Eli Koehn added a double. Andrew Holtzman, Braylon Robbins, Kane Grace, and Maddax Jackson all had one hit each. Grace pitched 4 1/3 innings and allowed four runs, all unearned, on four hits and three walks with eight strikeouts. Jackson pitched 2 2/3 innings and struck out two batters.
July 16th – Claremont 3, West Central Gold 2
Another mid-inning rally helped the Honkers win the second game against West Central to advance to the state tournament. Claremont scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first for an early 1-0 lead. Robbins tied the game with an RBI single in the top of the fourth. Two batters later Erickson had an RBI double to left field to put West Central in front 2-1. The Honkers, however, regained the lead, 3-2, with a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the fourth. West Central again had the tying run on third base and the go-ahead run on first base in the top of the seventh with one out, but a pop out to the catcher and ground out to third stopped the rally.
Erickson had a double and an RBI. Robbins ended with a single and an RBI. Holtzman, Jacob Mallinger, Jett Whiting, and Jackson all had one hit each. Max Lewin pitched all six innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits and four walks with eight strikeouts.
