By Rodney Haas 

605 sports 

GREGORY — To paraphrase Ernest Thayer’s poem “Casey at the Bat, there was no joy in Gregory following Saturday’s 13-12 loss to Redfield in the Class B Legion tournament. 

Tears were shed and players took the defeat hard, feeling they let a community down that has done so much to allow them to play in a state tournament before the home crowd. 

Saturday’s wild-pitch walk off loss to Redfield separated Gregory from having a chance to play Winner/Colome in a winner’s bracket matchup and a chance to play in Tuesday’s championship game. 

The only question entering Sunday was how would Gregory respond to such a devastating loss. 

The answer was simple — three runs in the top of the first, two in the second, one in the third and two more in fourth for an 8-1 lead after four innings en route to a 10-3 win over Dell Rapids, which entered the tournament with a 21-10 record. 

“We knew we didn’t play our best game against Redfield and Dells was a team we wanted to beat so we came out on fire and gave it to them,” said Bryce Frank, who picked up the win on Sunday — pitching 52/3 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. 

Gregory would follow up Sunday’s win with a 9-3 win over Winner on Monday to advance Tuesday’s final day and one win away from the championship game.

“We don’t just want to be here because we’re the host team, we want to be here because we’re one of the top eight teams in Class B,” Gregory coach Neil Hylla said. 

Gregory entered Tuesday as one of three teams still alive in the tournament. With a win, the host team would meet its rivals to the west for a rematch of Monday’s game, but this time with a state championship on the line. 

Instead, perhaps it was the heat or the a depleted pitching staff or as Hylla suggested maybe the moment got to the best of them, but either way the momentum was gone and the tournament run was over with a 12-5 loss to eventual champions Vermillion.  

“I’m really proud of the way the boys played during the tournament,” Hylla said. “I think we did a good job of digging down deep and showing who we are as a team. I think we surprised ourselves in how well we played against some of the teams and beat here in this tournament. That’s a good thing that is going to help our confidence for some of these guys who are coming back next year.” 

The impressive run made by Gregory didn’t go unnoticed by other teams and the umpires, who awarded Gregory with the sportsmanship award following the conclusion of the tournament. 

But perhaps the most impressive part of Gregory’s run after its loss to Redfield, comes in the never give up attitude that became a characteristic of the team. 

Trailing 6-1 to Vermillion on Tuesday, Post 1 would score six runs in the fourth inning to take a 12-1 lead. Instead being 10-run ruled, Gregory responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to keep the game going and added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Never giving up.  

“That’s something that I’m really most proud of with these guys,” Hylla said of his team’s never give up attitude. There was a point where I visited them where I could see it in their faces where we are never out of a game and we could score runs in hurry. We have the firepower to do it.

“I’m trying to teach them the right lessons moving forward from right here. Someday they may be standing in my position on the sidelines with a hard hat at third base kind of doing the same thing with their kids or with kids in the community.”