BROOKINGS — In a tournament full of upsets and nail-biting wins, Madison/Chester left no doubt en route to a state championship.

Madison/Chester cruised past Clark Area, 8-2, to win the Class B state high school baseball championship at Bob Shelden Field on Tuesday.

“Awesome, it always feels good to win,” said Madison/Chester coach Eric Hortness. “I believe it’s 23 years since I’ve had a team that’s won it, so long break in between the two championships for me, long break in between the two championships for Madison. So it’s great.”

After a narrow 1-0 win over Dakota Valley in the semifinals, coach Hortness mentioned postgame how crucial it was for the Bulldogs to start the championship fast on a boiling day in Brookings. MC answered the call with a quick four runs in the opening frame on a two-RBI double by Cale Johnson and a two-RBI single from Cohen Hahn.

“I told them when that Dakota Valley game was over, I told them ‘You’ve got 10-15 minutes to savor it, then come back down from your high’. Coaches get too much of the credit, too much of the blame in sports, it’s all about the dudes on the field and they did excellent all year.”

With an early 4-run advantage, it allowed Bulldogs’ starting pitcher Braylon Oftedal to settle in to limit the Dinosaur defense.

Oftedal, who won the tournament MVP award, tossed Madison/Chester’s third complete game of the tournament along with JD Prorok and Hahn, allowing two runs on five hits on just 77 pitches, striking out four.

“Just teamwork,” Oftedal said of the win. “The bench, everybody came to play, everyone knew their role and they dominated.”

“For Braylon to step up like he did, he’s an even-keeled dude,” Hortness said. “The state championship game is not going to rattle him at all. That’s what we preach all year is, throw it over the plate, make the plays behind us and try to scratch out a few runs.”

The Dinosaurs got on the board in the fourth with an RBI double from Caleb Drenth but was quickly countered with three more Bulldog runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Casyn Crabtree’s RBI single and Oftedal’s two-RBI double gave Madison/Chester its largest lead of the entire state tournament.

Watson Grantham scored one on a ground out in the fifth inning for the Dinos, before Crabtree would plate another on a single for the response.

Oftedal continued to shove the rest of the way for the Bulldogs, going 1-2-3 in the seventh inning to clinch the championship.

“A lot of confidence,” Oftedal said on what was key in the win. “We all knew what to do, we’ve all been there before so it took a lot of experience.”

Hahn and Crabtree each drove in two runs on two hits while Oftedal and Johnson each tallied two RBIs on one hit for the Bulldogs.

For CA, Cooper Pommer surrendered the loss, allowing seven runs on four hits and three walks in 3.1 innings, striking out one.

Grantham and Drenth each plated runs on one hit in the loss.

For Madison/Chester, it was not only its largest margin of victory in the state tournament, but it was the team’s first win by more than one run in its five playoff games this season. It ran a gauntlet, and was able to capture its first high school baseball championship in two decades, ending it's year a perfect 20-0 against Class B opponents.

“I don’t know if I could’ve taken another 1-run game,” Hortness said. “It’s one of those things where it goes back to our senior leadership. We’re never out of a game, the other team has to get 21 outs to beat us and luckily we were able to sneak through those first four playoff games.

“We’ve been here several times with our coaching staff, I think it’s six out of seven years we’ve made the state tournament. So to finally get through and win three games is just awesome.”