Cornbelt Teams Win; Now Face Each Other In Round Two

A pair of wins came for the Cornbelt teams yesterday in the 2023 South Dakota Amatuer Baseball State Tournament to close out round one.

PBR Moves On

Both games were played at Drake Field due to weather conditions. Dell Rapids PBR secured a 6-2 win over the Parkston Mudcats and the Madison Broncos snuck past the Volga Rants 7-6 in a close one.

Dell Rapids only needed two pitchers to get it done against the Mudcats and most of the work was on the shoulders of Trey Randall. He came in for Reese Arbogast to begin the bottom of the fourth inning trailing 2-1. It was not all sunshine and rainbows in the early going.

Randall didn’t connect with a strikeout until the sixth. He gave up two runs and four hits in his first two innings. He bounced back and took command in the sixth inning. For the rest of the game, he saw no more than four batters per inning. All while striking out at least one in all but one of those last four innings of play.

Though, rest assured, PBR also reeled in the runs. After Randall’s pitching got going, so did the runs. All courtesy of the pitching woes of the Mudcats. Parkston had three pitching changes in the seventh and walked six batters. PBR obtained four free scores on just two hits that inning.

Broncos Slide By Rants

The Madison Broncos didn’t have as much fortune due to opposing pitching, it was more of a battle throughout. It came down to the final at-bat for both teams into the ninth tied up at six all.

The Broncos benefitted from an interference by the Rants. Heith Williams led off the ninth for the Broncos with a base hit. After Mitch McNary got out, Greg Biagi was walked and Williams got to advance to second to put two on for the Broncos.

A base hit and RBI from Trey Smith helped bring in Williams for the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth. Left fielder Aspen Dahl came in relief to close out the game in the bottom of the eighth. He allowed just one hit in the last two innings and throwing four strikeouts and securing the win.

Dell Rapids PBR and the Madison Broncos will now face each other in Round Two of the tournament on Wednesday, Aug. 9 at 7:30pm.