By 605 Sports Staff

BROOKINGS — The Renner Post 307 Royals went undefeated in the State A Legion tournament, capping it off with an 8-0 shutout over the Brookings Post 74 Bandits in the championship.

Renner went straight through the winner’s bracket to claim its second championship in the last four years, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

Their path to the championship included the likes of a 10-inning, 7-6 walk-off victory in the opening round of the tournament over Yankton, a postponed 1-0 victory over Brookings in the second round with a mercy-rule win over Watertown in the same day, and a walk-off victory over top-seeded Harrisburg Gold to get into Saturday’s championship.

“I’m just so proud of our kids. We came out. We battled, and we faced a lot of adversity,” said Renner head coach Isaac Struck. “We had a 10-inning marathon Game 1, had an opportunity to play baseball in the night game and it rained out for like 16 hours. But we bounced back, won a really close ball game. Our bats came alive and we took a team approach, and had a next man up mentality.”

The Renner Royals celebrate after winning the Class A State Legion baseball championship against Brookings on Saturday in Brookings. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

After a hectic four days of baseball, all that was left was the championship against seven-seeded Brookings in what turned into a dominant shutout victory for the Royals, with the help of 5.2 shutout innings on the mound from Jake Wheeler.

“I just went out there and I tried my best. I was nervous the whole time, but sometimes the nerves are good,” said Wheeler. “My thing was to just give it your all, everytime I pitch I throw as hard as I can, spin it the best that I can, and if it doesn’t it doesn’t work.”

Wheeler gave up just six hits, four walks, and two hit batters in 5.2 innings but his defense behind him combined with active bats helped build a comfortable 6-0 lead through the first three innings.

“It just lights a fire under me,” said Wheeler on his team’s offense. “I have confidence in my team to score every inning, and all I’ve got to do is hold them and I know we’re going to win.”

Zachary Dunham’s RBI-single in the sixth and Jacob Sanderson’s RBI-ground out in the seventh increased Renner’s lead to eight before Billy Laible came on to slam the door on the Class A title game.

When it was all said and done, it was a dream come true for the Renner Royals.

“I’ve been playing with my best friends for the last 5-7 years and to accomplish this is something we always dreamed and always talked about so it’s really exciting,” said tournament MVP Sullivan Schlimgen.