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Harrisburg Gold blanks Yankton, claims second state Legion title in three years
Harrisburg Gold celebrates winning the 2025 Class A American Legion baseball championship on Saturday in Watertown.
(Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

Harrisburg Gold blanks Yankton, claims second state Legion title in three years

Aug 2, 2025
  

 

By Jon Akre

605 Sports

WATERTOWN — For the second time in three years, Harrisburg Gold takes gold at the State A Legion baseball tournament.

The No. 7 seed in the state tournament ran the table winning all five games in five days, capping off the week-long classic with a shutout victory over Yankton, 2-0, at Watertown Stadium.

“It’s a crazy feeling. So proud of every one of these guys, we deserve it,” said Harrisburg third baseman/pitcher Eli Kokenge. “We worked so hard for this. Started off the year a little slow and then we got going, got a lot of energy coming into the tournament and we played like it so I’m just so proud of everyone on this team.”

And it didn’t take long for Harrisburg to throw the first and only punch of Saturday’s state tournament. Kokenge led things off with a single followed by a towering double from Noah Boschee, before Bryson Esser drove in the first run on a single to right field.

Another run came across two batters later on a Taten Munce RBI single, giving Harrisburg the early lead and the only baserunners to score in the seven-inning thriller.

Harrisburg Gold celebrates winning the 2025 Class A American Legion baseball championship on Saturday in Watertown. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

“We knew two runs is not a lot in a game, especially since Yankton is a pretty good hitting team,” said Kokenge, who batted 2-for-2 with a walk in the win. “We were kind of frustrated in the game, hitting-wise. We thought we should’ve scored a lot more runs. But we got it done, that’s all that matters.”

While Post 45 scored two runs in the first inning, it could’ve been much more as Darren Safranski struck out with the bases loaded, limiting the damage for Yankton and starting pitcher Boston Frick.

Yankton would later get out of another bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning to keep Harrisburg’s lead to two.

“It was just one of those days I feel like,” said Kokenge. “We have those sometimes where we just can’t put balls in the air that much. It seemed like we were hitting a lot of balls on the ground, not finding gaps, and just didn’t come up with any big time hits.”

But the story of the game for Harrisburg Gold was pitcher Kason Syverson who held Yankton scoreless for six innings, allowing just four hits and two walks, striking out nine in the win.

This was Syverson’s second outing of the tournament, with the first coming against Yankton throwing 3.1 shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks, adding four more strikeouts.

“It was definitely nice having seen them earlier this week,” said Syverson. “I know they’ve got some great hitters and I kind of changed my approach a little bit. They started hitting my offspeed a little more so I started to lean towards my fastball more.”

Despite already using Syverson against Yankton, Harrisburg Gold head coach Will Simmons was still confident in his pitcher to go out and shut down the No. 2 seed in the tournament for a second time in five days.


“We weren’t worried about the second game, we were just worried about winning this first one,” said Simmons. “I just knew Kason Syverson and the type of guy he is would be smart enough to know the hitters and be able to attack them and if it didn’t work out we had Eli right behind him.”

Syverson held on long enough to set up pitching ace and Minnesota Gopher baseball commit Eli Kokenge to come in the last inning and close out the win.

Kokenge, who has been dealing with a shoulder injury to his throwing arm all summer, says he was a bit nervous to come in and close the state championship.

“I had to find some confidence for myself and remember that I’ve pitched a million times before and just remember to go out there and do everything I can to get outs,” said Kokenge.

And Kokenge was tested early in his outing, after a sharp grounder to first baseman Noah Boschee was booted, pushing the tying run to the plate. Luckily for Kokenge, he got pinch-hitter Mark Kathol to ground into a double play for the first two outs of the inning and clear the bases.

“That was a lifesaver there,” said Kokenge. “I was really pumped up for that. Now I just got to get one more out and that’s the championship so I was really excited.”

Leadoff batter Samuel Gokie struck out on a breaking ball to close out the championship for Harrisburg Gold.

Harrisburg Gold celebrates winning the 2025 Class A American Legion baseball championship on Saturday in Watertown. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

Saturday’s championship capped off a wild and unfamiliar summer for Post 45, which ended the regular season 14-20, and 9-8 against South Dakota opponents. The usual baseball powerhouse entered state as the No. 7 seed, but ran through each of the top-3 seeds in the state, including Rapid City Post 22, Yankton (twice) and Watertown.

“Just seeing these guys earlier in the year struggle and then have themselves believe and actually play the way they know that they can play is very rewarding,” said Simmons.

Esser and Munce each drove a run on one hit in the win for Harrisburg, while Boschee, Ethan Beek, Ty Raymond and Michael Oakland each collected hits.

For Yankton, Frick allowed two runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings, striking out three in the losing effort. Tate Beste tallied two hits while Gokie, Matthew Sheldon, Evan Serck and Gavin Johnson each recorded a hit in the loss.

Kokenge, who won Tournament MVP and Big Stick award honors, ended his tournament with a .600 batting average in five games, adding three doubles and a triple with five RBIs. He also tallied two saves on the mound in both pitching outings.

Both championship qualifying teams will now move on to the Central Plains Regional Tournament Aug. 6-10 in Fargo, N.D. 

Harrisburg matches up with the Nebraska state champion in game one at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, while Yankton will face Fargo Post 400 to close out the opening day of the tournament.