BRANDON — Two long balls and a Mount Vernon pick-up player lifted Alexandria to an improbable win on Sunday.

The Angels outlasted Sunshine League rival Parkston Mudcats, 6-5, on a walk-off hit by Bradley Dean at the Class B state amateur baseball tournament at First National Bank Field. 

In the ninth inning, Dean, a pick-up player from Mount Vernon, ripped a Jake Weber pitch into shallow center field and Jerrod Zens coasted into home plate as the Angels celebrated.

“I was lucky enough that I got one in the zone,” Dean said. “I put a good swing on it and was happy we were able to walk out of here with a win.” 

After Zens crossed home plate, the Angels mobbed Dean around second base as the Mustang kept their season alive. 

“It was surreal,” Dean added. “It’s kind of a weird feeling. But they’re a great group of guys to play with. It’s good team chemistry that they have over here as well.” 

The Dean walk-off hit capped off Alexandria’s rally from a 5-0 deficit, and added to the Angels’ long winning streak over the Mudcats. Parkston has not beaten Alexandria since the 2015 Class B state amateur baseball championship game, a run of 27 straight Angel wins. 

Alexandria also defeated Parkston (17-0, 11-3) during the regular season. But Sunday’s contest felt like a throwback for the Sunshine League rivals. 

“It felt like a battle and we knew it was going to be,” Alexandria third baseman Pierce Smith said. “Because they are a tournament team and they always play well in the tournament. It doesn't matter what the regular season is with those guys because they are going to come and play every game in the tournament.”

The Mudcats had Alexandria on its heels early on, building a 5-0 lead after five innings. But the Angels found new life on two swings of the bat.

In the sixth inning, Alexandria Legion player Ben Wilber made the most of his second career plate appearance for the Angels. With two outs and runners on second and third, Wilber smacked a three-run home run over the 315-foot left field fence. 

Wilber, who graduated from Hanson High School in the spring, said he felt the adrenaline after hitting a home run with so much on the line. 

“It’s awesome,” Wilber said. “Going into that bat I was a Legion player, and I haven't gotten much playing time. I was just excited to be in the game really, and then after that I was just excited to make a big-time swing.”

Wilber, who will golf at Dakota Wesleyan University, said the amateur baseball game “was one of the more fun games,” he’s ever played.  

“It was really more relief that we won and now we are advancing,” Wilber said. “Because it’s win and go home. It’s just an awesome feeling that we ended up winning.” 

The home run not only cut into Parkston’s lead, but also shifted the momentum in Alexandria’s favor. 

“He stepped up big time,” Smith said. “That’s a big situation, and he went 3-2 on him, he had a good at-bat, and crushed one.”

In the eighth inning, Smith also crushed one. After Michael Schoettmer hit a one-out single, Smith hammered a two-run home run over the left field wall and Alexandria evened the score. 

“I got down 0-2 and basically was just trying to put one in play and stay short on one,” Smith said. “He threw me a good pitch and I made a good swing.”

“Those were awesome, and they came at really big times, too,” Dean added about the home runs. “If we were going to go it was going to be at that time to kind of start breaking it open. Huge swings by them and overall just a collective team effort.”

The home runs set the stage for Dean’s walk-off hit. In the top of the ninth, Parkston’s Luke Bormann went down looking for the third out with two runners on base.  

In the bottom of the ninth, Zens drew a walk and Cole Wenande advanced him to second on a sacrifice bunt. After Tyson Gau was intentionally walked, Dean sliced the walk-off into center field to complete the comeback. 

“We had all the confidence in the world in him,” Smith said. “We know what he can do. It’s not surprising, but he stepped up in a big moment.”

Parkston starter Max Scott limited Alexandria until the middle innings. The 6-foot-5 right-hander struck out five batters, allowed four hits, three earned runs and had five walks in six innings.

He received early run support as Parkston led 3-0 after the first inning, highlighted by a Mount Vernon pick-up player Chase Hetland’s two-out, two-run single. 

In the third inning, Kaleb Weber smoked a two-out RBI single into center field and Bormann made it 5-0 in the fifth inning on an RBI single. 

Alexandria relievers Tyler Sanderson and Alex Ferrin, however, combined to throw scoreless innings of relief. 

The Angels bat then came alive with a few timely hits. 

“We knew three wasn't going to be enough to beat us,” Smith said. “So we wanted to go out and put up zeros, and chip away. We didn’t have to score three at one time. We just needed to get some hits together. Obviously we gave up a couple more. We knew it was going to be a grind.”

Parkston’s Jeff Harris finished 3-for-3, while Hetland had two hits and two RBIs. Bormann had two hits and an RBI.

Alexandria’s Michael Schoettmer and Wilber totaled two hits apiece. Wenande and Jordan Gau added hits. 

The Angels will play Canova or Garretson at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals.