By Jon Akre

605 Sports

After a walk, the momentum shifted towards the Lynx when Ryland Carroll launched a towering double off the left field wall to tie the game. Carroll, a Dakota State baseball commit, went on to throw a 1-2-3 strikeout inning to close out the win.

“That’s who Ryland is,” said Steemken on Carroll. “He just plays the game and he’s just a dude, that’s why he’s going to play college baseball. His emotions never get too high or too low. He's just going to grind and he’s just a great athlete and he’s one of our leaders so he did a great job.”

In total, BV tallied five hits in the last inning, nearly doubling their total of 11 for the game.

“The guys just kept passing the baton and it was fun to watch,” said Steemken. “That just speaks to who they are. We compete. Coach VanHeel, all he talks about is grit and understanding your role and doing your job. And they did that and it was awesome to watch.”

Friday’s last quarterfinal game was supposed to be a pitching duel between two of the best in South Dakota, Brandon Valley’s Aiden Zerr and O’Gorman’s Rylan Arbogast.

But it quickly turned into a Knights’ feast as Zerr gave up four runs in the first and another two for a six-run deficit early. Despite the early struggle, the Lynx stuck to their guns and kept their ace in the game.

“It speaks a lot to Zerr, too,” said Steemken. “He stayed in that game and we challenged him a little bit and said ‘Hey, this is your game. Go get it’, and he does what he does. That’s who he is and that’s why he’s our guy. Carter (LaBrie) came in and pitched a great zero and vulture that dub, and then Ryland came in and shut the door. Our defense played great, that’s what we kind of tip our cap too.”

Zerr kept the Knights at bay in the third, fourth, and fifth innings striking out 11 total batters before Carter LaBrie came on in relief and Carroll on to close the seventh.

“It was really just about not giving up,” said Carroll. “We knew what we had going on and we had full trust in Zerr and he didn’t come out very hot but that’s part of the game. We knew what we were capable of, we’d seen Arbogast before and we knew that we were going to have to attack him if we wanted to do anything and that’s what we did.”

Carroll finished the game batting 2-for-4 with two RBIs, including the game-tying two RBI-double, recording the last three outs of the game on strikeouts.

“That’s why they give you three outs,” said Carroll. “A lot of people give up when it’s two outs. But we know what we can do and we’re more than confident in what we can do and we have the confidence even when there’s two outs and we’re not feeling great that we’re still going to get it no matter what the count is, how many outs there are, what inning it is. It’s all just baseball.”

Knutson and Maxwell Peters each added two hits and an RBI for the Lynx, Mason Veld tallied two doubles and three RBIs, while Pudwill drove in a run on a single as well.

For O’Gorman, Jackson Bjorkman took the loss allowing four runs on three hits and a walk in 0.2 innings. Arbogast tossed six innings in his start, surrendering four runs on seven hits and two walks, striking out six.

At the plate, Sullivan Schlimgen drove in a run on two hits, a triple and a walk, Brogan Moffit added an RBI-single while Bennett Duncan drove in two runs on one hit in the win as well.

Brandon Valley will take on Sioux Falls Lincoln at 3 p.m. Saturday in the state semifinals.

“We had two really competitive games with them this year,” said Steemken on the matchup with Lincoln. “They’re a great team and I know they have some arms left just like we do. Hopefully we play some good, clean baseball, the weather warms up, there’s a little less rain and we play a good clean game.”