Junior Teeners Take Fourth at State Tournament

The Milbank VFW Junior Teener baseball team captured fourth place at the State 13-14 VFW tournament this past weekend at Legion Field in Milbank. The locals were also awarded with the Sportsmanship award following the tournament.

Milbank slipped past W-I-N (Warner-Ipswich-Northwestern) 2-1 in their opening game of the tournament Friday, July 21.

Milbank scored a lone run in each of the fifth and sixth innings. W-I-N brought home a run in the seventh, and the locals held on for the victory.

Kaden Krause earned the pitching win for Milbank. He pitched four innings surrendering no runs, one hit, no walks and struck out nine batters. Micah Dietmeier recorded the last nine outs to earn the save.

Dietmeier, Parker Schell and Kellen Hoeke each managed one hit to lead Milbank’s offense.

The Junior Teeners went up against Elk Point-Jefferson in semi-final action Saturday, July 22, and fell 14-4. The opponent took an early 5-0 lead after the first two innings. They added a lone run in the fourth, three in the fifth and four in the sixth. Milbank scored one run in the fourth inning and plated three runs in the sixth to cut the deficit to 13-4. The opponent tallied another run in the seventh to cut the game short by the 10-run rule.

Milbank tallied its four runs on five hits in the contest. Krause, Stevie Ash, Mike Karges, Evan Erickson and Cole Swenson each had a hit for the locals.

Karges took the loss on the mound for the Junior Teeners. In two innings, he struck out three batters and gave up six runs and four hits. Swenson finished the game with one strikeout and allowed nine hits, eight runs and one walk.

In the third place matchup, Milbank took Madison 14’s down to the wire, but dropped 6-5 in a close contest Sunday, July 23.

Milbank took the early 1-0 lead after three innings. Madison got its bats rolling and fired in three runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to overtake the advantage at 6-1. Milbank staged a comeback in the seventh inning. Leading the surge was a walk by Krause, a single by Bennett Schwenn, a groundout by Dietmeier and another single by Karges. Milbank could not pull any closer and were denied 6-5.

Krause and Karges led the way for Milbank with two hits each. Schwenn, Erickson and Schell added one hit each to complete Milbank’s seven hit game.

Dietmeier took the pitching loss for the Junior Teeners. He threw four innings and sat down two batters. He gave up three runs, six hits and two walks. Krause finished the game for Milbank. In his two innings, he struck out one batter and allowed four hits and three runs.

The Milbank Junior Teeners completed its season with a final record of 16-13.

Pictured is Micah Dietmeier.