By Jon Akre

605 Sports

Benck got the Castlewood scoring started with a two-RBI double in the third, followed by a grand slam the very next inning to give the Ravens a 6-3 lead, all while facing Tabor’s ace Jared Miller.

“He mixes it up well, his fastball has pretty good speed, and then he throws you that curveball that’s pretty good too,” said Benck of Miller. “He spots his curveball well so he’ll get you outside and then he’ll get you inside, kind of just got to be ready for when he splits the plate and hit that.”

After driving in the first six runs of the game for Castlewood, Benck came on in relief of Alex Gauer, giving up just two runs on five hits and a walk in four innings, taking the victory on the mound.

“We kind of knew that going in they were going to hit the ball well, so we knew that if they started hitting one of us that we got 3-4 guys that we can use and just piece it together and make it work,” said Benck. “Just ride an arm until we can’t anymore and then we’ll go to the next guy.”

Down 7-3, Tabor attempted to spark a comeback in the bottom of the eighth, plating two runs on a single and a fielder’s choice cutting the lead to two when Castlewood’s Gus Steiger came on to close out the win.

“Gus has been our closer all year, so I feel good when I give him the ball and we have the lead, so it was a lot of fun,” said Castlewood Dan Haug.

Benck batted 2-for-5 with a double and a grand slam, driving in seven total runs, tying him for the fourth most RBIs by a player in a single state tournament with Dell Rapids’ Pat Schmidt (2001).

Stieger batted 4-for-5 in the win, Peyton Garbers of Clark tallied two hits, including a double, Alex Gauer and Booker Schooley each tallied a hit and two walks, while Adam Ching and Jacob Tvedt each had hits.

Tabor’s Miller struck out 15 batters in eight innings, allowing seven runs on 12 hits and six walks in the loss.

Chase Kortan struck for four hits, Brady Bierma had three hits, while Beau Rothschadl tallied two hits and two RBIs in the loss.

Castlewood advances to the second round and will face DImock/Emery on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.