By Jon Akre

605 Sports

Ellens says the Cinderella run at Cadwell Park has been crucial for the youth within the Wood Ducks roster.

“It’s a great learning experience for the younger guys,” said Ellens. “I’ve been here myself when I played for the Gamecocks, but for the younger guys I hope they soak it all in cause it’s special.”

The Wood Ducks ended the regular season with just two regular season wins, finishing 10th in the ultra-competitive Cornbelt League with a 2-16 record.

Despite the regular season woes, the Wood Ducks got things clicking at the Cornbelt League tournament in Canova.

“We were looked past in our districts and we took a couple teams out there, and ever since then we’ve just been one game at a time,” said Ellens.

After a first round loss in the district tournament to the Flandreau Cardinals, the Wood Ducks have won four consecutive games, with wins over the Madison Dairy Queen Broncos, Colman A’s, Menno Mad Frogs, and on Monday, the Elk Point Colt 45s to advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Derek Renken delivers a pitch during the Wood Ducks 8-5 victory over Elk Point at Cadwell Park in Mitchell. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

A huge boost to this Wood Ducks team has been the additions of multiple American Legion and travel ball pick-up players, with Ellens saying “We wouldn’t be here without them”.

“The Sanford kids I coached in the high school season, and then we’ve got Legion kids at West Central,” said Ellens. “They’re all West Central students so they’ve played baseball together for a long time. I just put them in spots where they can do damage.”

Most recently, Ellens credited the Wood Ducks hitting for their second round victory over Elk Point, striking for five runs in the sixth-inning to pull away for the win.

“Our bats came alive,” said Ellens. “Like today, I figured we could get four, we’ve been scoring four, four, five, and four, and I’m like ‘We need more than that though, we got to get more than that guys’, and we put that five-run inning in there. We got to keep doing stuff like that if we’re going to keep winning.”

But the most consistent piece to the Wood Ducks win streak has been its pitching. 

The Wood Ducks pitching has limited its opponents to just 14 runs and look to continue that trend in the quarterfinals on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. against Platte.

“We’re going to have our ace back on Thursday night so we’ll see what we can do,” said Ellens.

The Wood Ducks may have finished last in the Cornbelt, but it will be one of the final eight teams left competing for a State B championship.

But it’s often said that the most dangerous team is one that has nothing to lose, and it’s a motto that’s fueled this deep postseason run.

“We’ve got nothing to lose, we won two games all year,” said Ellens. “We’re on a heater now, so we might as well keep it going.”