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Veteran additions in the offseason key to Devil Rays tournament appearance
Parkston Devil Rays manager Doug Sudbeck talks with Cody Larson during an amateur baseball game against the Redfield Dairy Queen on Saturday, June 28 2025 in Parkston.
Rodney Haas / 605 Sports
Aug 7, 2025
 

By Rodney Haas 

605 Sports 


BRANDON — After 35 years of playing amateur baseball for the Dimock/Emery Raptors, Doug Sudbeck traded in his Raptor jersey for a Parkston Devil Rays jersey and the title manager this past offseason.

Sudbeck, along with Cody Larson and Dave Soulek have provided something that has been lacking for the Devil Rays the past three years — veteran leadership for a younger team. The result has been the team’s first state amateur baseball tournament appearance. 

“I think it takes a lot of pressure off of Landon (Sudbeck),” Doug said of Landon, who was the team’s previous manager. “He would have to make out the lineup and play with his friends. Now you have a few old guys in there and we take control. The younger guys respect us and they listen.”

This year Parkston finished 13-8 and tied for second place in the Sunshine League standings with the Alexandria Angels, just behind Winner/Colome. 

The Devil Rays will play Madison at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in their tourney debut. 

“I think they have grown over the last few years,” Sudbeck said of the Devil Rays. “They know what it takes now. I’ve seen pretty much every scenario that could happen — going out and getting beat badly to winning a one-run ballgame the next night. I’ve pretty much seen everything and these guys are starting to see that too. That’s how they keep getting better. They figured out how to win now.”

This year the Devil Rays have been led by Caden Donahue and Dylan Soulek at the plate while Jake Helleloid has been the ace of the staff with a 5-0 record. 

“Those first couple of years felt like we had to police ourselves in a way because we didn’t really have an older voice or someone that everyone looked up to with respect,” said Dylan Soulek, who played legion baseball in Mitchell and currently plays college baseball at Northern State University in Aberdeen. “This year we have that and it’s allowed guys to play more loose and play to their abilities and not be so tense during the game and worrying about being so perfect.” 

It’s a statement that is shared by Dylan’s father Dave, who admits to not having the same amateur baseball playing experience as Larson and Sudbeck, but has experience in coaching his boys Landon and Dylan.  

“They just needed a little guidance and Doug has been a great skip. Cody has been great and I kind of just try to stay the young guy. Those two know more baseball knowledge than I do,” Dave Solek said. “They were all friends. Nobody really wanted to step on anyone's toes and this year with Doug coming in and Cody has been great. Everyone can focus on playing baseball and that is going to be key. There should be no stress on them. Go play the game and have fun. You're young. You have a lot of years to play it, why not make some noise this year.” 

For Larson, he would come out and watch the Devil Rays play last season and notice the amount of talent and potential the team had. 

“Just to have young players and not a couple of older guys around, it just changes the presence in that dugout,” said Larson, who began playing amateur baseball in the late 1990s with the various Mitchell amateur teams and played a summer in Germany when he was playing baseball at Dakota Wesleyan. “We see things that sometimes they don’t see and to give these guys credit, they listen. You tell them you see something or do this or do that and they are making adjustments.” 

While many Devil Rays will be making their first state tournament appearances, for others they already got a taste as pick-up players. 

“I think the biggest thing is we're all doing it together this time and we’re not doing it on different teams,” said Dylan, who was a pickup player last year for the Winner/Colome Pheasants. “Obviously our goal was to do it together and experience (the state tournament) together.”

Larson added the big thing is just learning from the standpoint of when a teammate or an older guy gets on you. It’s not trying to be hard on them, it’s learning and getting better. 

“Just play the game the right way. When you play the game the right way and a lot of things happen, a lot of good things happen,” Larson said. “These boys had that, they just didn’t have some veteran leadership around the game. 

“They have what it takes to get it done. I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year, but it will happen soon.”