SIOUX FALLS — The Brandon Valley Lynx scratched, clawed, and came back to win its second straight Class A state title.

No. 2 Brandon Valley scored three runs in the seventh inning to outlast No. 8 Watertown, 4-3, capturing its second consecutive state championship Saturday at Ronken Field.

“This team has shown it all year, resiliency,” said BV head coach Jeremy VanHeel. “We’ve had many games where we’ve had to come back and walk it off, and the big thing is they just continue to compete for each other. Everybody loves everybody, it’s just a tight-knit group.”

Facing a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the seventh, the Lynx got the first two batters on before a Bryce Plucker RBI-groundout cut the lead to just one. Watertown reliever Carter Buisker struck out the ensuing batter before BV’s Maxwell Peters reached base on a walk.

With runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, Bryton Stroh came up clutch in a 2-strike count, roping a single to left field to plate the tying run.

“Literally nothing was going through my mind,” Stroh said of his final at-bat. “I was looking fastball the whole time and then once it got down 0-2 I was just waiting for a curveball but no curveball came. I just tried to battle everything off and just put a ball in play and do the best I could with that.”

A Ryan Fenton single loaded the bases once again, setting up a 4-pitch walk by Caleb Severin, walking off the Class A state championship.

Brandon Valley's Caleb Severin celebrates after the walk-off walk to win the Class A state title on May 23, 2026, at Ronken Field in Sioux Falls.

“Never a doubt,” VanHeel said. “We knew we could do it. We believed in each other and as soon we got the first guy on, we had it.”

But the repeat hungry Lynx started slow during Saturday night’s championship. Starting pitcher Jack Blomgren walked two batters and hit another to load the bases in the second frame. After a strikeout, a Cain Everson walk and a Cole Hansen two-RBI-single gave the Arrows an early 3-0 lead.

VanHeel went to the bullpen and called upon Luke Felderman who tossed 5.2 shutout innings of relief, allowing just four hits and two walks, striking out five to take the win on the mound.

“I just knew I had to go in and do what I had to do to keep us in the game,” Felderman said. “I had to pick up Jack and I knew my team could get it done.”

“He had it in him as soon as you saw the look in his eyes out there,” VanHeel said of Felderman. “You knew he was going to get it and just compete.”

BV got on the board in fifth inning on a Peters sac-fly before pouring on three runs in the final frame to walk-off its second consecutive Class A state championship.

Brandon Valley celebrates after its walk-off win over Watertown in the Class A state championship on May 23, 2026, at Ronken Field in Sioux Falls.

Fenton led the Lynx with two hits, Stroh added an RBI on one hit, Severin had an RBI on two walks while Peters and Plucker both drove in runs with one walk in the win.

For Watertown, Buisker suffered the loss allowing three runs on three hits and two walks, striking out one. Tripp Jorgenson started the game for the Arrows and went six strong innings allowing just one unearned run on one hit and five walks, striking out five.

Hansen, Jaxon Falak, Markus Pitkin and Maxx Sears each had a hit in the loss.

It’s the second-straight Class A state championship for the Lynx, and first by any team in Class A since Brookings in 2015 and ‘16. But VanHeel says the back-to-back titles pales in comparison to the group of players he was able to do it with.

“It’s really cool to go back-to-back, but at the end of the day, it’s about living the moment with these guys and these guys competed hard,” VanHeel said.