By Jon Akre

605 Sports

BRANDON — An improbable run concludes with an impossible finish for the Parkston Devil Rays.

In just their third year of existence, the Parkston Devil Rays stormed back from a five-run deficit to stun the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks, 10-8, in the Class B state championship at First National Bank Field at Aspen Park.
The Rays (20-9), facing a 6-1 deficit through seven innings of the state championship, stormed back with an eight-run eighth inning to take home the title.

“It feels great,” said Devil Ray manager Doug Sudbeck. “These guys worked so hard all year to get to this point. I don’t think anyone seen us coming, which is fine. We just put 4-5 good games together and away we went.”

Through the first seven innings of the Class B state championship, Hartford-Humboldt (18-10) looked like it would cruise to their first title in team history. The Devil Ray crowd was silent, Parkston lacked energy, but the belief was still alive and well heading into the pivotal eighth inning.

“It’s been a rollercoaster for sure,” said Devil Rays second baseman Landon Sudbeck. “Going into that eighth inning down 6-1, We still believed but we weren’t catching many breaks and it’s like ‘Oh boy, it could be one of these games.’ We just stayed with it. The message was just keep grinding out at-bats and hopefully something is going to give and something did.”

That something was the Devil Rays’ first 10 batters of the eighth inning reaching base safely, starting with a lead-off walk from Carter Sommer, a single by Dylan Soulek, and the second run of the game on a James Deckert RBI single. It was only 6-2, but the Rays had life.

“We started pretty slow, felt like we were down a little bit but nobody quit,” said Parkston third baseman Jake Helleloid. “We all just kept grinding. We knew that something would happen and we capitalized on what we needed to capitalize on.”

Parkston Devil Rays Caden Donahue jumps in the air after scoring a run during the eighth inning against the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks during a Class B championship game of the 2025 South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament Sunday, August 17, 2025 in Brandon. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

Deckert’s single forced the Gamecocks to go to the bullpen in relief of starting pitcher Carver Hultgren with nobody out in the inning, forcing a sore Blake Svoboda to come in after throwing 140 pitches in the quarterfinals Friday.

“We knew once we got him out of the game we liked our chances,” Landon Sudbeck said. “It’s a long tournament, it’s a grind and everyone’s arms are banged up so once we got him out of the game it was like they were going to have to dig deep.”

The pitching change never slowed the Devil Rays momentum. Phil Johnson (Dimock-Emery pick-up player) drew a walk to load the bases before three consecutive free passes scored runs, pushing the Gamecock lead to just one run and zero outs.

“Our plan was staying patient at the plate, taking a strike, trying to capitalize on the base paths as much as possible,” Helleloid said.

Tanner Dyk shot one back up the middle to give the Devil Rays their first lead of the game. Seth Muth reached on the third hit batter of the inning before Sommer drove in two more runs on a ball to left field.

The Rays were dead in the water, and in the blink of an eye, held a three-run lead with six outs to a ‘ship.

“It’s been a team effort all the way around,” Doug Sudbeck said. “It’s not just one guy, it was the whole team from 1-9, they battled. Put balls in play and got victories.”

PHOTOS: The @Parkston_Rays late inning comeback gives Devil Rays a 10-8 win over the @HHGamecocks to capture the Class B @SDAmateur baseball championship Sunday in Brandon. (Photos by Rodney Haas / 605 Sports) - https://t.co/eRXk4sZCOj

— 605 Sports (@605_sports) August 18, 2025

Defensively, the Rays finally found an answer for the dangerous Gamecock lineup in the form of Johnson, who allowed just one run in the middle and later innings of the game to slow the HH momentum. Johnson relieved an injured Ty Neugebauer after recording just two outs, not allowing the Raptor pick-up player much time to warm up.

“I just wanted to try and contribute anyway I could,” Johnson said. “Ty got hurt, I wasn’t even really loose yet, but just wanted to come out and see if we could get some quick outs and give the hitters a chance to come back and start trying to score and chip away.”

Johnson, who won tournament MVP honors for DE in 2010, says he was elated to record the final out after battling a sore arm and the muggy Brandon heat.

Johnson gave up a two-run bomb to HH’s Dylan Konechne in the ninth inning, but was able to get the next three batters out to close the championship.

“It felt great cause I was dying,” Johnson said on the last out. “After the two-run bomb we got the next two guys out, I was definitely trying to take deep breaths, catch my breath. I’m not used to one day's rest and then coming back so I was happy to contribute and I was so happy for these guys. Especially Doug coming over here and helping take the Rays. It’s been amazing.”

The Gamecocks started off Sunday’s champ ionship strong scoring three runs in the opening frame. HH was able to get after the Rays' starting pitcher, Post 194’s Sommer, to build the early lead. 

Sommer, who allowed five runs on five hits and two walks in four innings with four punchouts, was able to settle in with two shutout innings before Cam Quigley drove in two more runs in the fourth to increase the Gamecock lead to five.

“After that first inning he settled in just fine,” Doug Sudbeck said of Sommer. “He’s a young Legion kid coming up and pitching in the biggest game of his career. He did an awesome job, you can’t ask anything more out of a Legion kid. He gave us 4-5 good innings and we went on from there.”

But it was the late game pitching heroics of Johnson who slowed the Gamecocks title aspirations.

Parkston Devil Rays pitcher Phil Johnson, a pickup player from the Dimcock/Emery Raptors celebrates the final out of a 10-8 win over the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks to capture the Class B amateur baseball championship Sunday, August 17, 2025 in Brandon. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

“You can’t ask for a better guy to come in in a situation like that,” Sudbeck said. “Phil has done it time and time again. I played with him his whole career, there was no doubt in my mind he could come in and do it. He was a little sore, but he’s a gamer, he’ll come in and he did it.”

For the Devil Rays, it was their first championship in their third year of existence in amateur baseball, in their first time competing in the state tournament. Landon Sudbeck, one of the key creators of the Rays, says it’s been a surreal experience.

“There were some rough days in that first season, second season as well,” Landon Sudbeck said. “Couldn’t even win a game in districts let alone getting to a state tournament. Everyone just stuck with it. The guys that have been around since Day 1, I can’t say enough about them.”

Additionally, Landon Sudbeck got the chance to win a state championship with his longtime baseball coach and father, Doug, who came over from the Raptors this season.

“Winning a championship with your son is awesome,” Doug Sudbeck said. “I hung around for all these years to play with him and now I got that chance, it was fun. And all the others that I’ve coached along the way, it’s just fun to see everyone together in a special moment.”

“It’s pretty cool,” Landon Sudbeck said. “You can’t say enough about his role on the team too. Being able to share the field sometimes, he’s getting older so he doesn’t play as much. But just having a leader in there. He knows what he’s doing and I don’t think we get here without him.”

Offensively, tournament MVP Helleloid and game MVP Dyk each had two RBIs on two hits, Deckert added an RBI on two hits, Sommer drove in two runs on a walk while Donahue and Landon Sudbeck each had RBIs.

For HH, Svoboda took the loss allowing four runs in the eighth inning. Quigley and Kyle Konechne each had two RBIs on two hits and a walk, Devon Gerry added two RBIs on one hit, Joe Hanisch tallied an RBI single while Brodie Herr (H/H Wood Ducks pick-up player) had two hits in the loss.

As the dust settled on the 2025 amateur baseball season, the invasive species reigned supreme as first-time champions.

“Never give up,” Doug Sudbeck said. “We’ve won a lot of games this year in the last inning by not giving up and that was their attitude today again. Don’t give up, keep trying, we can do this and that’s what they did.”