Milbank Junior Teeners Secure Runner-Up Finish At Home Baseball Tourney

The Milbank VFW Junior Teener baseball team hosted the 2016 George Smith VFW Invitational June 24-26. They earned a second place finish.

In the first game of the tournament, they rolled to an 8-1 victory over Watertown. The opponent scored one run in the opening inning to put the first points on the scoreboard. Milbank came back to knot the score at 1-1 with a lone run by Mason Riley in the second. Micah Dietmeier and Noah Steinlicht each plated a run in the third to move Milbank ahead 3-1. Five runs by the locals in the fourth inning put the game out of reach and advanced Milbank to the semi-finals.

Riley led the Milbank offense with three hits and one run. Dietmeier had two hits and scored two runs and Braden Femling and Brodie Holtquist added two hits and one run each. Eli Fischer and Noah Steinlicht rounded out the team’s 11 hits with one apiece.

Milbank slipped past Webster 10-9 in semi-final action Saturday. Webster started off with six runs in the first inning. Milbank answered with three runs in the second to cut the deficit to 6-3. Webster scored a lone run in the third before Milbank fired back with six runs to go ahead 9-7. Webster added its two final runs in the fourth to even the score at 9-9. Steinlicht scored the final run for Milbank to end the game at 10-9.

Milbank’s offense was evenly spread out with eight batters securing one hit each. Steinlicht, Parker Schell, Keaten Benson, and Evan Erickson plated two runs each in the contest.

Milbank suffered an 8-0 loss to West Central in the championship game. Holtquist led the hometown boys with two hits. Femling, Benson, and Riley added one hit each to round out the offense for Milbank.

Pictured along with honorary VFW member, George Smith, (back row, left to right) are: Coach Travis Lester, Noah Steinlicht, Brodie Holtquist, Sam Seffrood, Logan Tietjen, and Smith. Front row, Evan Erickson, Mason Riley, Eli Fischer, Keaten Benson, Brady Femling, and Zippy Bock.

Click here to view our full album of photos from the tournament!