By Rich Winter

605 Sports

WILLIAMSPORT, Penn. — With the number of Kortan baseball players that have found great success coming from the town of Tyndall, Bon Homme County has been celebrating since two of their own, Nick and Manny Kortan, qualified for the Little League World Series as part of team South Dakota.

Nick is the manager of the South Dakota team and is relishing experiencing the pinnacle of Little League baseball with his son.

“It’s pretty surreal and I didn’t know how quaint and compact this compound is,” he said. “Our kids get there and within minutes they walk out to the infamous Little League Hill. I guess myself and the other coaches should cherish this because a lot of people would kill for this opportunity.”

The name Kortan is synonymous with baseball success with brothers Nick, Chris and Scott all learning the finer points and intricate nuances of baseball from their father, longtime Bon Homme Legion baseball coach Don Kortan. 

Nick, in particular, benefited from his older brothers letting him tag along to their practices. 

“Scott was 10 years older than me and Chris was six years older,” Nick Kortan said. “I’d go to Little League practice in the morning and then both of their practices that day ended up spending all day at the ballpark and just get better from being around the game.”

It wasn’t just the Kortan family celebrating a Little League World Series appearance. The small town of Tabor has produced more than its fair share of baseball talent. Nick Kortan says baseball has alway”s been a big deal in Tabor and notes that it's just something that is part of the culture.

“It’s just what we did,” Nick Kortan said. “As a kid you start out shagging foul balls on Thursday night and that’s just a typical small town in South Dakota.” 

Nick and his wife Chelsey (Nelson) Kortan met at the University of Sioux Falls where both were standout athletes.The Kortan family had another brush with the Little League World Series when their older son Henrik’s team advanced to the Regionals several years ago.

In South Dakota’s opening round loss, 2-1 toss to Florida, the ESPN commentators couldn’t stop raving about South Dakota's defense that was highlighted by a bare-hannded catch and subsequent tagging a California runner out at home plate from catcher Kinnick Noble.

 Manny Kortan defense early in the game drew the praise of the commentators as he perfectly timed the carom off the wall on a hard hit ball to hold the leadoff  single. While the defense might have surprised the commentators, the South Dakota kids knew that part of their game was rock solid.

“We started every practice off with defense where we had to make 18 plays on grounders and fly-balls,” Manny Kortan said.

Make a mistake in practice and the defensive drills started over.

“We had a couple of plays that really went our way but when you practice those types of plays in practice even when things speed up you don’t feel as much pressure,” Manny Kortan said.

When South Dakota qualified for the series the players mobbed each other. Nick Kortan said the coaches had a brief “moment of joy” before tackling the logistics of ending a game at 10 p.m., the bus rolling out at 7 a.m. and the players and coaches heading directly to Pennsylvania having not been home in over three weeks. 

“We have a great group of kids,” Nick Kortan said. “Three weeks is a long time for guys to be together but these guys all know each other and just get along.”

The magical ride for the Kortan family and Team South Dakota came to an end on Saturday with a 6-3 loss to New York.

Lifetime memories made with the pictures to prove it, coach Kortan said having his dad attend the last three weeks and now having these memories with his family is priceless.