Local News
Baseball: Watertown pulls upset of Post 22 at state
del.icio.us
Digg
NewsVine
FarkABERDEEN — Watertown opened the 2008 South Dakota American Legion State A Tournament by showing just how wide open this year’s chase for a state title is. Post 17 staged a late-inning rally to upend perennial state contender Rapid City Post 22, 3-2, and advance on in the winner’s bracket. offense with three of the nine Post 22 hits, and Emery was the hard-luck loser allowing the three runs on nine hits and fanning nine.
The team viewed by many prognosticators as an underdog coming in defeated Post 22 in a game that was undecided until the very final swing of the bat.
Jordan Mette led the Post 22
Post 22’s normally stout defense did not help him out as the hard hats committed 5 errors.
Trailing 3-2 in their final at-bat, Post 22 loaded the bases with two out against Watertown starter Aaron Renner, however, Brock Estes’ fly ball to right was caught, tagging the hard hats with the tough first-round loss. Mette began the late threat rapping his third single of the game. Sam Wolff reached on an error and Dana Hill was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Post 22 was unable to push the tying run across.
“Kolton gave it all he had,” Ploof said. “He pitched well enough to win but we didn’t play the game the way you have to if you want to win. You have to be ready to play, and we didn’t play the game very well.”
“One loss doesn’t mean the tournament is over,” Post 22 head coach Dave Ploof said. “It’s a double-elimination tournament so we’ll see what happens.”
Watertown had jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the third inning behind a single by the No. 8 hitter, a walk to the No. 9 hitter and an RBI single by Watertown second baseman Aaron Pickeral. Post 22 starter Kolton Emery avoided further damage by coaxing a grounder to short that Wolff quickly turned into an inning-ending double play.
Post 22 threatened in the home half of the third as Mette singled sharply to center with one out, and Wolff followed up with a bouncing single over the third baseman’s head. However, with runners on first and second, Hill flied to center and Estes took a called third strike to end the inning.
The hard hats drew even in the fourth as Steven Ficken lined a double into the left field corner and then dashed home with the tying run when Kelly Coates’ hard one-hopper to second scooted under the second baseman’s glove into right field for a run scoring single.
Post 22 grabbed the lead 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth as Mette singled, moved up on a Wolff sacrifice and scored when Estes rapped a sharply hit grounder up the middle that caromed off the second base bag into shallow left. With runners on first and third and only one out, the hard hats seemed poised to have a big inning, but the rally fizzled when Hill was thrown out trying to score on Jarrett Jensen’s tapper to the first baseman and Ficken fanned to end the inning.
In the seventh, Watertown threatened but Post 22 clung to their 2-1 lead behind a couple of excellent defensive plays as Emery picked-off Drew Danforth who had singled, and Ficken made a diving catch to end the inning.
Watertown finally regained the lead in the eighth as catcher Blake Turbak led off the inning with a booming triple to the base of the wall in left and promptly scored on a double over the first base bag by Brenden Koistinen. Following a sacrifice, Lucas Hoftiezer center fielder singled to center and a 3-2 Watertown lead. Only a fine over-the-shoulder catch by left fielder Brock Estes for the third out of the inning prevented an even greater deficit.
Watertown coach Tony Beste was delighted with his team’s effort.
“We had great approaches at the plate, got good swings at the ball and put the ball in play,” he said. “I just hope we can keep playing with the confidence we played with today.”
The game was over when …
Watertown hit the ball hard and rallied in the eighth just when it appeared that Emery had taken control of the game.
Today’s MVP ...
Renner kept the hard hats off balance all day, and allowed his team to make the late-inning rally.
On deck ...
Post 22 will meet Parkston at 9 a.m. MDT.
Blake Turbak, right, of Watertown Post 17, blocks the plate and makes the tag on Rapid City Post 22's Dana Hill on Wednesday at the South Dakota State A American Legion baseball tournament in Aberdeen. Watertown won the game 3-2. (John Davis/Aberdeen American News)
The opinions above are from readers of rapidcityjournal.com and in no way represent the views of the Rapid City Journal or Lee Enterprises.
Rapidcityjournal.com provides this community forum for readers to exchange ideas and opinions on the news of the day. Passionate views, pointed criticism and critical thinking are welcome. Name-calling, crude language and personal abuse are not welcome. Moderators will monitor comments with an eye toward maintaining a high level of civility in this forum. Our comment policy explains the rules of the road for registered commenters.
If you don't see your comment, perhaps...
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy