By Jon Akre

605 Sports

Dell Rapids coach Danny Miller had already planned on a squeeze play the batter before with Talan Millage at the plate, but Dakota Valley elected to walk Millage, loading the bases with one out.

“I knew we were going to,” said coach Miller. “My plan was to double steal and bunt with Talan, and then they put Talan on base. Even though it was a force, Tad can run and Cooper can bunt and I liked my chances there.”

Tjaden got the eighth inning rally started with a one-out single into right field. A Connor Hanson walk and a steal put Tjaden on third, setting up the game-winning squeeze play.

“Danny told me he was going to bunt, so I got a big lead since he was in the windup,” said Tjaden on the bunt. “I had faith in my teammates so I knew he was going to get it down, I trusted him.”

The back-and-forth chess match between the top-seeded Quarriers and No. 6 Panthers finished similar to how it started. 

DR’s Drake Eastman got the start and threw five strong innings despite dealing with an injury to his throwing hand. 

“He couldn’t throw his curveball very well,” said Miller on Eastman. “He had a sprained finger and a blister on his finger and with all that going on, he still gave us five really good innings.”

Eastman earned tournament MVP honors for his five-inning outing allowing four runs on three hits and four walks in five innings, striking out five. Eastman also batted 3-for-4 with two doubles, seven walks and three RBIs in the state tournament.

In the third inning, the Dell Rapid offense took an early lead on a Ryan Brandenburg RBI-single followed by a sac-fly to score Brandenburg off the bat of Cole Ruesink. DV quickly followed suit with two runs of their own in the fourth inning.

“They play in a really tough region. They have a great coach, Rob (Augustine) is a great coach and you know it’s going to be a dog fight, it always is when we play them,” said Miller.

The stingy Quarrier offense continued to go after DV’s Brady Weaver. Hanson drove in a run on a fielder’s choice in the fourth while Jackson Peppel ripped a double down the left field line in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead, but it was a short lived lead.

In the sixth, Jake Pick scored Luke Bruns on a sac-bunt while Vaughn Hoffman tied the game back up on a double.

“They just never go away, they don’t back down,” Tjaden said about DV. “They don’t give up at all.”

In the later innings Eastman was relieved by Lincoln Fersdahl who shut down the Panther offense the rest of the way, allowing just two hits and four walks over the final three innings to get the win on the mound. Fersdahl got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh to keep the 4-4 tie.

“We had to go to Lincoln Fersdahl there,” said Miller. “They feel really good about Lincoln on the mound because all he’s done all year is win in big moments for us.”

Fersdahl kept the Panthers at bay until the eighth inning when the Quarriers walked it off for the state championship.

“Awesome, it was awesome,” Miller said. “Our kids executed when they had to at the end of the game and that was the difference.”

Ruesink led the offense in hits batting 2-for-4 with a double, Peppel added an RBI on a double, Hanson and Frost each tallied RBIs in the win while Brandenburg collected one hit and one RBI. Eastman had three walks in the win as well.

For DV, Hoffman took the loss in 1.1 innings of relief, allowing one run on two hits and two walks. Weaver tossed six strong innings for the Panthers allowing four runs on three hits and four walks. Bruns added two hits, a double, walk, and an RBI, Hoffman batted 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Pick and Drew Lukken each tallied RBIs in the loss.

It’s the second straight high school baseball championship for the Quarriers and fourth in the past five years, including a Legion championship in 2023. Adding its 2017 high school championship, the Quarriers have now tied St. Thomas More for the most championships in South Dakota high school baseball history.

“They’re coached hard, our kids are coached hard,” said Miller. “They’re used to high expectations. We demand a lot out of them. High expectations equals high results and sometimes we’re really hard on them but I feel like it makes them better and they more often than not respond really well to it and it makes them tougher. They’re a tough group of kids and they compete well.”