Teeners Take Fifth at State Tourney

The Milbank VFW Teener baseball team took fifth place during the South Dakota State 16U Class A Baseball Tournament August 4, through August 6, in Beresford.

Milbank earned the consolation championship title with a 5-4 victory over Madison- White on Sunday.

Milbank Teener Coach Travis Lester attributed the win to a strong pitching performance by Kacen Huber and Brodie Holtquist. “We also came up with strong hitting in the top of the seventh inning,” he stated.

Madison got off to an early lead with a 2-0 advantage after two innings. Milbank answered with four runs in the third, but Madison quickly knotted the score at 4-4 in the fourth. Milbank scored its winning run in the sixth, following a walk by Jacob Karges and a single by Holtquist. The duo led the team with two hits each in the game.

In consolation semi-final action Saturday, Milbank defeated Dell Rapids 8-7. Milbank had a 3-0 edge after two innings. Dells cut the deficit to 3-2 after three innings, but Milbank retaliated with two more runs in the fourth to go ahead 5-2. Dell Rapids again came back with three runs in the fifth, followed by two in the sixth. Milbank plated one run in the sixth to pull within one point at 7-6. A walk-off game-winning suicide squeeze by Noah Steinlicht in the last inning scored Jake Fox and gave Milbank the one point victory.

Tate Stricherz and Gabe DeLaRosa led Milbank with two hits each. Fox earned the pitching win. He gave up just six hits and seven runs.

In the opening game of the tournament Friday, Milbank fell 16-7 to Wagner. “Errors and unearned runs led to our demise,” said Coach Lester.

Wagner started the game with six runs in the opening inning. They scored in every inning while Milbank struggled to get its offense going. Karges led Milbank with two hits, including a double. Holtquist also hit a double. Karges started on the mound, and Holtquist provided the relief.

The Milbank Teeners: (Back l. to r.) Coach Travis Lester, Tate Stricherz, Sam Seffrood, Zippy Bock, Riley Gauer, Noah Steinlicht, Brodie Holtquist, Jake Fox, Jake Karges, and Braden Miller. (Front row) Carlos Ramirez, Evan Erickson, Micah Dietmeier, Braden Femling, Kacen Huber, Keaton Benson, Gabe DeLaRosa, Eli Fischer, and Kaden Krause.