BRANDON — The Parkston Devil Rays made the most of their Class B state amateur baseball tournament debut.

The Devil Rays, who were making their first-ever state tourney appearance, outlasted Madison 4-2 in a pitcher’s duel on Thursday at First National Bank Field at Aspen Park. 

“It feels really good,” Parkston pitcher Jake Helleloid said. “We’ve been battling and we feel like we deserve it. We’ve got a whole team behind us. It’s great.” 

For Parkston, it was a win three years in the making. The Devil Rays joined the Sunshine League in 2023, and have continued to climb up the standings each season. 

Thursday’s win over Madison, which won the Cornbelt League championship, was the culmination of three years of hard work. 

“It’s real rewarding,” Parkston manager Doug Sudbeck said. “These guys got it together three years ago. They have been waiting for this moment. They are putting things together now and it’s awesome seeing these young kids have a chance to play in a state tournament and get a victory. They are a great bunch of young men. I am speechless. They did an awesome job.”

Helleloid, who has played for the Devil Rays all three years, delivered in a big way on the mound. The right-handed pitcher tossed a complete game, striking out 12 batters, allowing seven hits, two earned runs and walked four batters on 156 pitches.  

“Jake pitched one helluva game,” Sudbeck said. “The defense played well. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Helleloid said he felt fatigued at times and his velocity dropped a little bit, but he threw 104 strikes and hummed along through the middle innings. 

“You just have to battle through it,” Helleloid said. “You have to hit your spots. You have to throw every pitch you can for a strike.”

Helleloid’s counterpart, JD Kirchner, was also effective and lasted the first four innings. He struck out four batters, allowed five hits, two earned runs and walked three batters. JD Prorok fanned 10 batters, allowed three hits, one earned run and walked five batters in five relief innings. 

“It’s the game I anticipated,” Sudbeck said. “I knew it was going to come down to our pitcher against their pitcher. The runs were going to be at a premium. We weren’t going to come out and score 10-11 runs.”

The Rays were clinging to a 2-1 lead when Madison’s Trey Smith evened the score on a two-out, RBI single in the seventh inning. 

In the top of the eighth inning, Ty Neugebauer ripped an RBI single into left field for a one-run advantage.  

“That was a huge hit,” Sudbeck said. “We needed a little boost right then and there and he gave it to us. That was real clutch.” 

“I was pretty fired up in the dugout,” Helloid said about the hit. “I jumped over this fence actually. That was fun.”

In the next at-bat, Landon Sudbeck laid down a sacrifice bunt and scored Caden Donahue for a two-run cushion. 

“I only had the suicide on for five or six times and it finally worked,” Doug Sudbeck said. “We needed to get all the runs we could.”

In the final two innings, Helleloid shut the door on the Broncos and Parkston celebrated its first-ever state tourney win.  

“We just have been getting better and better every year,” Helleloid added about the win. “It’s awesome.”

Madison’s Dawson Bakker had three of the team’s seven hits. Mitch McNary added two hits. 

For Parkston, Seth Muth, James Deckert and Ty Neugebauer each had two hits. Neugebauer drove in two runs. 

Parkston will now play another Cornbelt League foe, Dell Rapids PBR, at 5:30 p.m. Monday.  

“My message was ‘Hey we won a game,’ ” Doug Sudbeck said. “ ‘It doesn't really mean anything. Let’s come out and put up a good showing again on Monday night.’ ”