By Jon Akre

605 Sports

“I was just trying to get to first as quickly as possible cause I thought he was going to gun it there,” said Payne. “But I was excited.”

Saturday’s matchup featured a pitching rematch from April 8, between Yankton’s Samuel Gokie and Jefferson’s Everett Salonen. The Cavaliers took that contest 4-0 and wanted to follow a similar formula for the state tournament rubber match.

“We split in Yankton earlier this year so today was a big game for us being a rubber match,” said Jefferson coach James Borges. “Everett, he did well against Yankton so I wanted to give him the ball on day one.”

Solenon allowed just two runs on two hits and four walks across five innings while recording seven strikeouts before being relieved by Kyler Boyd. Solonen threw 86 pitches before exiting the game.

“With Everett, I could see a little bit of fatigue around that 80-pitch mark. I don’t need to ride him for too long,” said coach Borges. “Plus with Everett throwing, batters have gone through the lineup three times, so timing is going to get a little better. We put Kyler in, he’s been doing a great job for us all year changing velocity, different pitches, and he went out and executed for us.”

Boyd came in and shut down the Bucks over the final three innings, not allowing a single baserunner while striking out four.

Yankton got the scoring going in the fourth inning on an RBI-single from Easton Feser before Jefferson plated two runs on a two-RBI double from Boston Bryant. The Bucks responded in the fifth scoring the tying run on an RBI-single from Matthew Sheldon.

“This is state baseball. This is the type game and type of energy we want going into it,” said Borges. “My guy's biggest thing is staying in every game, every pitch. And who’s going to, at the end of the day, execute the best and win.”

Going into the last half inning, the Cavaliers’ leadoff batter Brody Jacobsen nearly ended the game with a towering shot to left field, landing at the top of the wall for a one-out double.

“I thought he popped one at the end,” said Borges. “For a guy that has as big of a heart as Brody, super happy for him. He got one strike, the guy threw an off-speed pitch and put the barrel to the baseball.”

An intentional walk and a groundout put runners on second and third before Payne sent the Cavaliers into the state semifinals.

“My guys have really bought in about executing situational hitting,” said Borges. “Not trying to do too much at the plate, just trust our fundamentals and the foundation that we built. Sometimes, your first pitch is going to be your best pitch that you see all at-bat long.”

Bryant finished with two hits and two RBIs for the Cavaliers while Jacobsen and Carson Hughes each tallied two hits in the win.

Ryken allowed one run on three hits and a walk in 2.2 innings for the Bucks in the loss. Feser and Sheldon tallied the only hits of the game in the loss.

Jefferson plays top-seeded Harrisburg Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

“Clean baseball. Harrisburg’s a great team, they’re coached really well,” said Borges on keys to a semifinal win. “It’ll be another rubber match game for us. We’re going to have to come and compete.”