BRANDON — The Parkston Mudcats are back in the state amateur baseball tournament win column. 

Parkston won its first Class B state amateur baseball tourney win since 2020 on Wednesday, pulling away from Flandreau 10-2 at First National Bank Field at Aspen Park. The Mudcats’ last state tourney victory was against Tabor, ironically five years to the day as their win over the Cardinals. 

“It’s always fun,” Parkston veteran pitcher Jake Weber said about snapping the state-tourney losing streak. “That’s why we are here. We want to win. We played really well. We had a couple of silly mistakes, but otherwise overall we hit the ball well. The defense played great, threw strikes and we did what we had to do. We hopefully have four more attempts at it. That’s the goal.”

Weber was effective on the mound, finishing with two strikeouts, allowing three hits, one earned run and two walks through seven innings. 

“It seems like he doesn’t get any older,” Parkston shortstop Cullen Verville said. “He brings a bulldog mentality when he’s on the mound and it’s just been fun to watch him pitch all year.”

Weber also received stellar defense in the outfield and infield, with the Mudcats producing multiple outstanding defensive plays to keep Flandreau off the scoreboard. 

“They saved a lot of hits,” Weber said. “They really bailed me out.” 

Verville powered Parkston’s offensive production, finishing 2-for-2 and drove in five runs. 

“I was seeing the ball well early,” Verville said. “It makes it easy when I have a lineup of eight guys all hitting the ball well.”

Verville jump started the offense in the first inning, smacking an RBI sacrifice fly to right field for a 1-0 lead. In the fourth, Verville hit a lead-off single and Max Scott drove him in with a single to left field. 

In the eighth, Parkston’s Luke Bormann smoked a triple to deep right field, scoring Kaleb Weber for a 3-0 advantage. Verville drove in Bormann with another RBI sacrifice fly to right field, and a 4-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the inning, Bret Severtson hit a lead-off double and Weber was relieved by Braxton Wilhelm, who gave up a Jake Patterson two-run homer to left field. But Flandreau’s Keith Cutler grounded out and Tim Huber flew into foul territory to end the threat, leaving the score at 4-2. 

From there, it was all Parkston as it scored six runs in the ninth inning and cementing the state tournament victory. The frame was highlighted by a Verville bases-clearing double stretching the advantage to 9-2. 

“Everyone was swinging it in front of me,” Verville said. “So it made it easy on me. I got to go up there, look for one spot and hit that double out there.” 

Bormann, Jeff Harris and Brayden Jervik finished with two hits apiece. Patterson, Huber, JaColby Anderson and Severtson all had hits for Flandreau, which finished the season with a 12-11 record. Severtson took the loss, allowing six hits, two earned runs, two walks and struck out five batters in seven innings. 

Parkston will play Alexandria at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday in the second round of the state tournament.