PARKSTON — Carter Sommer continues to show out for the Parkston American Legion baseball team.

Parkston Legion Post 194’s ace has been a force in his final season on the Legion squad, but it’s taken awhile for the team as a whole to gel this summer.

Parkston currently sits with a 9-7 record but Sommer says he isn’t too worried about it with regions still weeks away.

“We haven't played our best baseball yet,” Sommer said. “You'll have some games where we'll hit the crap out of the ball, but make a bunch of errors, and sometimes we'll play perfect in the field and not do the best off that's played. I have full amount of confidence that once that postseason comes around, we will be in our top shape.”

As for Sommer, it’s been yet another dominant start to the season, as the right-handed pitcher bolsters a 4-0 record with just a 1.53 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 32 innings.

“He's really stepped up and he's been the guy, he's the guy we trust to go out there and win us a game. He’s the guy we want in the biggest moments,” said Parkston Legion head coach Landon Sudbeck. “He trusts all his pitches. He'll get his strikeouts, he can blow it by guys if he has to, but then he's also got his defense behind him too. The team trusts him. He's really been our guy these past couple of years.”

While the numbers have slightly dipped from last season's totals of a 1.18 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 47.2 innings, Sommer doesn’t lack any confidence and has come to learn to trust in his defense when a play needs to be made.

“You can get as many strikeouts as you want, but still have faith in your teammates behind you to make plays if a ball is put in play, and I have no doubt in my mind that a lot of the plays will get made,” said Sommer. “I think that's my biggest thing, is I have a lot of trust in those guys.”

At the plate is where Sommer has taken the biggest leap from last season. As a .284 hitter last year with just six RBIs, he’s jumped that number up to .314 with a team-high 10 RBIs. Sommer credits his additional production at the plate to his mental growth as a hitter, along with an adjustment to his hitting stance.

Parkston’s Carter Sommer slides safely into home during an American Legion baseball game against Winner/Colome Saturday, June 28 2025 in Parkston. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

“One thing I've realized as I've gotten older, you have to stay out of your head,” Sommer said. “That's one thing I'm really trying this year is, just one bad plate appearance doesn't mean your whole game is done. And last year I figured out that when I'm swinging, I'm stepping out. I had a couple coaches during spring ball tell me that ever since then, I've almost closed off the stance and just tried stepping as quick as I can forward just to make sure I'm not stepping out.”

Now into July and the postseason looming, Sommer and Post 194 have a newfound motivation to make a deep playoff run after losing in the Class B state Legion championship to Elk Point-Jefferson last year.

“Going into this year we want to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and we want to make it back there and do better things,” said Sommer. “And you've kind of been able to see that in all of our sports if you look around. My sophomore year we lost in the dome for football. The next year, we had high expectations, we wanted to come back and we wanted to do better and that's what we did. But we want to get to that next step. We haven't felt that since 16U, and we want that back.”

And Sommer isn’t just a key factor for the Legion baseball team in Parkston, he’s also played an important role for the Parkston Devil Rays amateur team.

After getting his first introduction to amateur ball last year batting .211 in 38 at-bats, Sommer has made an arguably more impressive jump in his production this year, leading the Rays with a .451 batting average in 51 at-bats.

“He's always been a good pitcher for us, but offensively I think this year, he even took a step from last year too,” said Sudbeck, who also plays for the Devil Rays. “I noticed it in Legion, I noticed it in amateurs. In amateurs, he's gotta be our best hitter and I don’t think it's fairly close, but he goes up there with confidence. He's got good bat to ball skills. He's really found a way to put balls in play and find a barrel.”

Sommer, alongside fellow Legion teammate James Deckert, have helped power the Devil Rays to the best start in its three-year history, currently sitting in second place in the Sunshine League with a 9-3 record.

“I think as a whole, our whole team is just having a lot more fun this year, and I think that plays a huge role,” Sommer said of the Rays season. “If you're not having fun, you're going to be slow off the field, you're not going to hustle around. It's just we're having a lot of fun and that makes a huge difference.”

Between the Devil Rays and Post 194 baseball, Sommer has had a busier baseball season than usual, but says he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I love this sport, I wouldn't rather be doing anything else,” said Sommer. “It never gets old for me. I love playing. I don't just love pitching, I love playing in the field. I love doing whatever my team needs me to do.”

As for his next chapter, Sommer will attend Northern State University to major in ag business and play baseball for the Wolves. With other interests from Dakota State and Mount Marty, Sommer says Aberdeen just felt like home.