By Jon Akre

605 Sports

MOUNT VERNON — In fall 2021, the Mount Vernon baseball field began renovations to move the backstop behind home plate back, as well as getting new dugouts among other changes.

Nearly three years later, the Mount Vernon Mustangs look to debut the completely revamped ballpark, including a brand new backstop, in-ground dugouts, a sprinkler system, and a grass infield.

Player and manager of the Mustangs, Deric Denning, felt that these renovations were necessary to keep up with surrounding towns, as well as opening up the possibility of hosting teener and Legion state tournaments.

“The main reason for the renovations is that we were all dirt (infield) so you can’t host a state tournament,” said Denning. “We were kind of playing catch-up, you know, a lot of these other towns are going to turf so we felt like we had to get something done on our field as well to keep up.”

A huge thank you to all the volunteers that helped take down the existing backstop & dugouts today to make room for the new ones! Progress is exciting!

Donate here! https://t.co/3046K8RpK5 pic.twitter.com/eCglt8ZA9P

�" MV Mustangs (@MVamateur) August 30, 2021

Mount Vernon’s baseball field is right next to a city road, limiting how far back they're able to move the backstop.

“The backstop was really close to home plate, so you really couldn’t score on a passed ball, and we’re a little space-challenged there with the field being on a city block right next to the road,” said Denning. “We put it back as far as we could, you know, the backstop, with it being close to the road and stuff like that.”

Denning says funding for the renovations wasn’t easy, with Mount Vernon being a smaller town and its proximity to Mitchell making it difficult to find businesses to sponsor and help with the funds.

“We’re not like a Parkston or a Salem,” Denning said. “Some of these towns that have these really nice fields. Obviously good for them, but we just don’t have the same amount of people, or, with being so close to Mitchell, we don’t have a lot of businesses so we don’t have a lot of tax base. We’re revenue challenged, so we kind of have to scrape everything together and count every penny to make sure we have enough to get those types of things done.”

When they got enough funding for the renovations, they broke ground in 2021 and completed the first round of renovations in the spring 2022, which included in-ground cement dugouts, and a new backstop.

But the newly renovated backstop just wasn’t what they had in mind or envisioned.

“It was just supposed to be wider,” Denning said. “We knew it was going to be slim-ish back there. It was just supposed to be wider. I’m not very construction apt, but for whatever reason it just didn’t turn out like we wanted and had to turn in a different direction.”

So they came back this past offseason to renovate the backstop once again, ultimately rounding-off the previously narrow and square backstop, while also adding the grass infield and sprinkler system.

“We just put concrete across and knocked out those three, weird, whatever you want to call that thing back there, knocked those out,” said Denning. “And so it’s just straight across now.”

Denning says the work and labor for the renovations have mainly come from volunteers, which has included long nights spent at the ballpark, even into the early morning hours.

“We’re not hiring companies to do it, it’s people just donating their time and kind of doing the best we can,” said Denning. “There’s some trial and error with that, but I think we have it in a pretty good place. When we put the sod in I think we were out there until like 1:30 in the morning, you know we’ve got people coming in after work, laying the sod down, staying till 1:00 a.m., and then getting up and going to their jobs. So it’s been a group effort from that standpoint.”

(Courtesy Photo)

The Mustangs hope to debut the newly renovated ball park on Thursday, June 20, against the Corsica Horned Frogs barring any rain, which will be their first real home game of the season, having their two prior home games at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.

“Cadwell’s been good about letting us use their ballpark since they haven’t had as many games,” said Denning. “They’re a little bit more open, so we played two home games at Cadwell, which, anytime you can get on Cadwell is nice so it’s worked out well.”

Complete list of South Dakota amateur baseball teams

This year there are 14 Class A teams along with 50 Class B teams within the nine districts/leagues.

New teams for the 2024 season include the Burke Bombers, Winner Demons, Irene Cardinals, Flandreau Blue Teal, Castlewood Ravens, Faulkton Hitmen, and Parker Ringnecks.

Below is the full list of 2024 South Dakota amateur baseball teams.

**=Class A Team

Black Hills League (4)

Black Hills A’s **

Rapid City Drillers **

Rapid City Diamondbacks **

Rapid City Angels **

 

Pony Hills League (8)

Burke Bombers

Chamberlain Mallards 

Colome Chaos

Four Corners

Kimball/White Lake Nationals 

Plankinton F&M Bankers

Wessington Springs Owls

Winner Demons

 

Sunshine League (8)

Alexandria Angels

Corsica Horned Frogs

Dimock/Emery Raptors

Mt. Vernon Mustangs

Parkston Mudcats

Parkston Devil Rays

Platte Killer Tomatoes 

Winner/Colome Pheasants 

 

South Central League (8)

Croton BlueJays

Freeman Black Sox 

Irene Cardinals

Lesterville Broncs

Menno Mad Frogs

Tabor Bluebirds 

Wynot Expos

Yankton Tappers **

 

Sioux Empire League (6)

Baltic River Dawgs **

Brookings Cubs **

Brandon Rats **

Renner Monarchs **

Sioux Falls Brewers **

Sioux Falls Flying Squirrels **

 

Cornbelt League (10)

Canova Gang

Colman Argali

Dell Rapids Mudcats

Dell Rapids PBR

Flandreau Cardinals

Flandreau Blue Teal

Humboldt/Hartford Gamecocks

Humboldt/Hartford Wood Ducks

Madison Dairy Queen Broncos 

Salem Cubs

 

Eastern Dakota League (7)

Castlewood Ravens

Clark Traders

Elkton Snappers

Lake Norden Lakers

Milbank Firechiefs

Ramona Express

Volga Cormorants

 

Northern Plains League (5)

Aberdeen Circus Bar **

Faulkton Hitmen

Groton Locke Electric

Northville Merchants

Redfield Dairy Queen

 

State Line League (8)

Akron Rebels

Elk Point Colt 45’s

Garretson BlueJays

Larchwood Diamonds

Lennox/Chancellor/Worthing Dirt Devils

Parker Ringnecks

Tea Steam **

Vermillion Red Sox **

Games to Watch

June 21: Dell Rapids Mudcats (11-0) at Dell Rapids PBR (3-6)

The two Dell Rapids teams face off on Friday in the annual ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’. After starting the 2024 season 2-0, PBR have lost five of their last six including a 19-13 loss on June 16 against the Humboldt/Hartford Wood Ducks. On the other side, the Mudcats are proving yet again why they are one of the best teams in the state, having won two of the last three state B championships, starting the 2024 season 11-0.

Mudcats keep things rolling with a 13-2 win over Madison. Our next game is Friday night for our the annual 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' vs our friends from Dells PBR. Hope to see you all there! #MudcatNation #CatsAreBack #CatsAreHot #EB pic.twitter.com/lelfz25bV4

�" Dell Rapids Mudcats (@DRMudcats) June 17, 2024

June 23: Alexandria Angels (9-1) at Winner/Colome Pheasants (10-1)

A rematch of last season’s Sunshine League championship, Alexandria and Winner/Colome are two of the most competitive teams in South Dakota amateur baseball. Alexandria’s only loss on the season is a 16-5 mercy rule on May 26 against this same Pheasants team, while Winner/Colome’s only loss is against Platte, 8-1, on May 19. The Angels pitching staff will need to limit arguably the best offense in amateur baseball, as the Pheasants are outscoring opponents 123-39 this season.

June 23: Flandreau Cardinals (6-4) at Canova Gang (6-4)

Another storied Cornbelt League matchup, Flandreau takes on Canova in its house on Sunday. The Cardinals always seem to find themselves in close contests, with five of their last six games being decided by just one run and have a 3-3 record in the month of June. On the other hand, the defending state champs are in similar company, most recently falling to Dell Rapids PBR by a run, 8-7, on June 13.