By Jon Akre

Its second round matchup against Parkston saw EPJ needing to dive into the bullpen in order to stay in the winner’s bracket of the tournament, going down 6-3 through the first three and a half innings before Bovill came on after a huge five-run bottom of the fourth and completely blanked the Parkston offense over the final three frames, allowing just two hits and two walks.

Days three and four saw a strong six-inning performance by Herrity against Dell Rapids, allowing just three runs on eight hits and two walks, and a 16-11 marathon victory over Lake Norden/Badger to get to Tuesday’s championship.

EPJ won four consecutive games in four consecutive days, but even then, it still had plenty of arms available if a second, winner-take-all championship game was needed on Tuesday.

“Ethan Bovill still was available, and Kayden Moore,” said EPJ coach John Gale on available pitchers for the championship game. “Managing pitch counts is tricky, but for Brody to do that, I said we knew between those three and a couple of relievers that, whether it took seven or 14, we had the pitching to get it done.”

But this is nothing new for Post 134, a deep pitching staff combined with stout defense has been the key to success all season long.

“We have nine different kids that pitch, and have five legit starters that take the ball and go deep into games, that’s what’s carried us all year,” said coach Gale. “We didn’t score a lot of runs all season. If you look at the stats for every team that was in here, we were not the team you would think, stats-wise, was going to come here and win, but to have that depth it sure makes it easier.”