WATERTOWN — Harrisburg Gold clinched a berth in the championship and host Watertown Post 17 had its season end during the state Class A American Legion Baseball tournament on Thursday, July 31 at Watertown Stadium.
Yankton knocked off Renner 5-4 in 10 innings and Rapid City Post 22 handled Watertown 14-4 before Harrisburg Gold rallied to top Rapid City Post 320 6-5 in the battle of the last two unbeaten teams in the tourney.
Regardless of Friday’s results, Harrisburg is guaranteed to play in Saturday’s championship games.
No. 7 Harrisburg Gold 6, No. 8 Rapid City Post 320 5
Rylan Boe’s bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh lifted Harrisburg (19-20) to the victory.
Rapid City Post 320 (34-29) used a walk, groundout and catcher’s interference to plate three runs and take a 5-2 lead in the top of the sixth. Harrisburg battled back in the bottom half of the inning, tying the game wild pitch and two-out double by Noah Boschee to deep left centerfield.
In the bottom of the seventh, Evan Beek smacked a lead-off single and came around to score after three walks. Beek and Bryson Esser each had three hits and Eli Kokenge two for Harrisburg.
Noah Wald pitched into the seventh and also had two hits and two RBIs for Post 320.
No. 1 Rapid City Post 22 14, No. 3 Watertown 4
A big game from Lars Kieffer and two big innings propelled Post 22 (60-9-1) past Watertown.
Kieffer went 3-for-4 with six RBIs, smacking a three-run homer in the second and a two-run double in the sixth. He also added a sacrifice fly.
Aiden Roberts added three doubles and Jace Morgan three singles for Rapid City, which scored six runs in the top of the second innings and four in the sixth.
Hayden Ries, Kaden Rylance and Jonathan Lake each singled for the Arrows (27-15), who were outhit 15-3.
Watertown used five pitches in the loss. McCoy Rippentrop scattered two hits over 5 2/3 innings of relief for Post 22. He also beat Post 17 1-0 in late June at Watertown Stadium.
No. 2 Yankton 5, No. 5 Renner 4
For the second time in two days, Yankton (28-11) went extra innings to win the game. Yankton topped Pierre 3-2 in nine innings on Friday and went 10 innings to prevail over Renner (21-21) on Friday.
Kael Garry’s two-out single in the bottom of the 10th lifted Yankton.
Tate Beste drove in two runs and got the win for the second-straight day with 4 2/3 innings of hitless relief.
Brody Jacobson, Zach Sprenkle and Rylan Arbogast each had two hits for Renner.
Friday’s Games
Yankton and Rapid City Post 320 meet in an elimination game at 4 p.m., followed by Rapid City Post 22 vs. Harrisburg Gold at 7 p.m.
If Post 22 wins, it will face the Yankton-Post 320 winner at 1 p.m. on Saturday and the winner of that game will play Harrisburg at 4 p.m. for the title.
If Harrisburg tops Post 22, the Yankton-Post 320 winner will have to beat Harrisburg twice on Saturday.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com
