MITCHELL, S.D. – Dimock-Emery and Plankinton will square off in Thursday’s first quarterfinal after wins on Sunday night in the second round of the Amateur Baseball State Tournament.
Dimock-Emery made an early lead hold up as they held off Milbank, 5-4. The Raptors put up three runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. The first two runs coming on a Phil Johnson RBI single. Johnson would go 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI’s, along with a complete game on the mound giving up four runs, one earned, with seven strikeouts, eight hits on 99 pitches.
Dimock-Emery (13-10) would add two more runs in the 3rd and 4th innings to take a 5-1 lead, but Milbank would mound a comeback with a pair of two out hits to make it 5-3 in the 6th inning.
The Firechiefs would make things interesting in the 9th when Dom Boerger drove in Lance Frognor from third on a ball that ricocheted off of Johnson’s right hand on the mound. Johnson would shake off the one hopper off his pitching hand to get Milbank SS Jacob Jackson for the final out on one pitch.
In the final game of the night, Plankinton would take advantage of some extra outs and some poor defense by Menno to 10-run rule the Mad Frogs in a 13-3, in seven innings.
Menno SS Tyler Miller would commit the first two of his four errors in the 1st inning. The Bankers would scored five times in the first on just one hit and Menno would never threaten the rest of the way.
Preston Kristensen and Trevor Salmonson both ended up with three hits while combining for five RBI’s for the Bankers and Cole Knippling had a pair of doubles to lead the Plankinton offense.
The Bankers would score five more runs in the 5th inning to take a 12-0 lead. The game was finally called after the 7th inning when it was 13-3.
Ryland DeVries, a pickup player from the Plankinton Gold Sox, threw all seven innings for the Bankers, allowing three unearned runs on six hits with eight strikeouts.
Plankinton and Dimock-Emery will now face off in the first quarterfinal game at 5:30 pm on Thursday night with the winner advancing to Saturday night’s semifinal.