WATERTOWN — Two years ago, Harrisburg Gold’s Eli Kokenge earned tournament MVP honors in Post 45’s state tournament run, but mainly for his efforts on the mound.

Kokenge pitched 12 innings across two state tournament appearances, allowing just four runs while striking out 12 batters, including a seven-inning outing against Brookings in the winner-take-all championship.

Fast forward to the 2025 state tournament and Kokenge earned the honor once again, but it wasn’t solely based on his pitching ability. The Minnesota Gopher baseball commit batted .600 in five state tournament games with three doubles and a triple, while not committing an error starting all five games at third base.

“That’s kind of who I am, I like to play both and do both,” said Kokenge. “It was really exciting this year just to work on developing my hitting more.”

But Kokenge had to rely on his hitting a lot more this Legion season. The right-hander had been dealing with an injury earlier this summer which limited him to just six innings on the mound in the regular season, but still found a way to win both a second tournament MVP and the Big Stick Award, given to the player with the best batting average in the tournament.

“I didn’t pitch that much this summer, had a little bit of a shoulder issue, but I just did everything I could for this team and that’s kind of what I wanted to do,” Kokenge said.

Kokenge was still featured as a pitcher in the state tournament, but not in his usual workhorse type of way. He threw just 2.1 innings as a closer to seal big wins for Post 45.

Harrisburg Gold's Eli Kokenge, center, receives the Class A American Legion player of the year award on Saturday in Watertown. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

“Our pitching is deep and I was still trying to keep his pitch count lower,” said Harrisburg Gold coach Will Simmons. “It was his first time throwing in over a month last week and so I didn’t think he was ready to start yet but him coming out of the bullpen for two appearances I thought was going to be good for this team to just shut teams down.”

And in his final American Legion baseball game, Kokenge continued to show his versatility even with a limited role as a star pitcher. After six shutout innings from starter Kason Syverson, Kokenge was called on to slam the door on the championship with a 2-0 lead against Yankton.

“It was definitely pretty nerve-wracking for me,” said Kokenge on pitching in the state championship. “I just 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.”

But coach Simmons was confident he could pull through one last time, even with a recovering injury.

“Even when he’s 85% he’s still one of the best guys in the state,” said Simmons.

Kokenge started his final outing with a streaking groundball that just got away from first baseman Noah Boschee for a leadoff single. It seemed as though a late Yankton rally was brewing, until Kokenge forced a groundball at shortstop Ethan Beek to kickstart a 6-4-3 double play to relieve the nerves of Kokenge.

“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.”

Kokenge gave up another base hit, but would throw a strikeout to close out the championship and an incredible tournament performance.

“It’s a crazy feeling. So proud of every one of these guys, we deserve it,” said 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.”

As a hitter, Kokenge ended his final season batting .405 with 16 doubles, two triples, seven homers and 31 RBIs, a stat line coach Simmons says could earn some attention from people in Minneapolis.

“I think his hitting has really stepped up this year,” said Simmons. “It’s going to be interesting at Minnesota, his stick could potentially get in the lineup and maybe be two-way there.”

Harrisburg Gold will compete at the Central Plains Regional Tournament Aug. 6-10 in Fargo, N.D. and will take on Lincoln, Nebraska, at 9:30 a.m. to open the tournament.