BRANDON — The Rays are rolling into the state semifinals.

The Parkston Devil Rays advanced to Saturday’s state semifinals after knocking off the Pony Hills League champion Kimball/White Lake Nationals, 6-1, to close out Thursday’s 93rd state amateur baseball tournament action.

And it wasn’t without the timeless Phil Johnson’s (Dimock/Emery pick-up player) complete game performance on the mound to limit the Nationals’ offense.

“It feels great,” said Devil Ray manager Doug Sudbeck. “Phil gave us a great game, you can’t ask anything more of him. It’s Phil. I played with Phil for a number of years, I knew he could still do it.”

Johnson allowed just one unearned run on five hits and two walks in nine innings, striking out eight in the win.

Parkston Rays starting pitcher Phil Johnson, a pickup player from the Dimock/Emery Raptors delivers a pitch in the fourth inning against the Kimball/White Lake Nationals during the quarterfinals of the 2025 South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament Thursday, August 14, 2025 in Brandon. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

“When you score runs, it’s easy to pitch,” Johnson said. “Go out and throw strikes and let the defense work and that was the plan all along: go get the lead and then keep it. These guys have been hitting all tournament and hopefully they keep hitting, it’s been great.”

Johnson, who threw just 103 pitches, 74 for strikes, said the key to his dominant pitching was all about understanding the aggressive National lineup’s approach.

“I was just trying to see what their approach was,” Johnson said. “Try to get them off balance. Are they coming up looking first-pitch fastball, first-pitch off-speed? Are they sitting on stuff, we were trying to figure out what their approach was and then mix from there.”

While Johnson did his thing on the mound, it gave the Rays room to work against KWL ace Mitchell Price. Parkston jumped out to an early lead on a fielder’s choice from Jake Helleloid to score one in the second inning, while Seth Muth hit an RBI single in the fourth to score the second run for the Rays.

“I thought we hit some balls hard against him,” Sudbeck said of Price. “He’s a very good pitcher, I thought we hit the ball hard. We got some runs early on him which helps for our pitching. Then we kind of laid off a little bit and didn’t score for a while, we just needed to keep putting runs on the board.”

In the sixth, the Devil Rays broke the game open scoring four runs on three hits, one hit batsmen and two KWL errors to make it 6-0. That lead gave Johsnon breathing room to push through the later innings.

“We were going to ride Phil as long as we could,” Sudbeck said. “I had Ty (Neugebauer) warming up, he was ready to go if need be but we were going to ride him until we couldn’t anymore.”

But Johnson got into trouble in the seventh after a lead-off hit-by-pitch and a single from Caden Lenz. He later gave up the lone KWL run of the game on a bases-loaded walk.

“Guns don’t kill people, lead-off walks kill people and I hit a guy to start an inning and then they get a hit and here you go, we’re rolling,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can throw, so I said let me see if I can get one here for us and try to get into double play mode.”

After a brief mound visit, Johnson got out of the jam himself on a 1-2-3 double play, the first of two double plays turned later in the eighth inning.

“It’s been crazy, I’m not used to it,” Johnson said while playing for the Rays. “This is the second time in my career we didn’t make the state tournament. Not being here with my guys is weird, but this is a great group of young kids and they can play ball.”

The Rays closed it out in the ninth, marking their second win against a district champion in the state tournament, with a third win against the defending state champion Dell Rapids PBR.

For a team that won just nine games a season ago, the Rays are on to the final four of the Class B state tournament.

“I think we’re playing together more,” Sudbeck said. “Everyone’s having fun, they’re enjoying each other. They’re coming together as a team. I told them that for a couple of years. Stay together and you guys will be a good team, and they are.”

The lead-off batters were hot in the Rays win with Seth Muth and Carter Sommer each tallying three hits and an RBI in the win, setting the tone for the rest of the order.

“They are our lead-off guys, we need them to get on base and they did,” Sudbeck said of Muth and Sommer. “They set the tone. Get on base and we’ll get them around somehow.”

Helleloid drove in a run on two hits while Neugebauer added two RBIs on one hit as well.

Price took the loss for the Nationals, allowing six runs on nine hits and two walks in 5.2 innings, striking out 11. Dylanger Pierson, Caleb Crist, Caden Lenz, Keaton Christensen and Cooper Leiferman each had a hit in the loss for the Nationals.

The Devil Rays take on the Alexandria Angels in an all-Sunshine League semifinal matchup Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

“I think the guys all know what they want,” Sudbeck said. “They came together, they knew what they wanted to do and accomplish. That was their goal was to make a big run and we’re making a big run.”