By Rich Winter

605 Sports

MARTIN — It has been a minute since Post 240 out of Martin has been to a Junior Legion state tournament. 

First-year baseball coach Riley Donovan said one of players told him the last time Post 240 made a Junior Legion state tournament was 1994. 

“The moment we found was just unbelievable,” Donovan said. “Sports in Bennett County hasn’t had a lot of success in recent years so going to a state tournament was a big deal for our parents and the entire community.”

Don’t expect this to be a one-time thing for Post 240. Donovan reports that every single member of this year’s team will be eligible to play with the team next year. 

“We’ve been a little up and down this year but you can expect that with a young team,” Donovan said. “We beat a really good team at a tournament in Winner (that team went on to win the tournament) and then came back and got beat by eight in our next game.”

Post 240 opens tournament play Friday against host team Lennox and Donovan is confident his pitching staff can hold up against the elite teams that made the state tournament. 

Donovan lists Rush O’Neill, Shooter Frederick and Gavin Risse as his potential starters for game one. 

“All three of these guys have been pitching awesome all season,” he said. “They throw a lot of strikes and use the breaking ball. If you have a 12-person roster it is rare to have three kids that can throw 80 pitches in a game.”

Donovan lists Hayden Risse and Casen Soderlin as his relievers.

“They have been coming in and throwing strikes,” he said. “We are very deep in pitching.”

Risse leads off for Post 240 with Risse batting second. O’Neill bats third with Casen Soderlin providing some pop in the lineup as the cleanup hitter. 

“Hayden is a lefty and does a great job of getting on base with Gavin Risse also reaching base with regularity,” Donovan said. “Our whole lineup can hit although we’ve struggled with strikeouts this year.” 

The region tournament was held in Martin this year giving extra meaning to the community who has been an active participant with the baseball team this year.

“Matt and Aaron Risse were invaluable in getting our field into fantastic shape,” he said. “We’ve had a bunch of cleanup days and every time we do something all of the parents show up and participate.”

At the region tournament Post 240 lost to Belle Fourche, 2-1, on a walkoff. The team then 10-runned a Stanley County team Post 240 hadn’t beaten all season.

Donovan was an elementary principal last year in Martin and this year, the former University of South Dakota football player takes over as the Warriors head football coach.

Donovan sees the talent coming up and recognizes the community and the athletes are starting to come together. 

“In some of our lower level teams we had to have two teams because of the number of kids going out for baseball,” he said. 

For the boys on his football team this fall Donovan expects a carryover in confidence from making a state baseball tournament.

“All of these kids that play baseball play football,” he said. “They’ve been putting in the work in the weight room and they will all be going into football with good attitudes.”