WATERTOWN — The Watertown Arrows are back in the state high school baseball tournament and a huge reason why comes from pitcher/catcher Kaden Rylance.

Rylance and the No. 12 Arrows made a statement this past Saturday during the Class A super regionals with only upset of the playoffs so far, sweeping No. 5 Pierre to advance to the state tournament.

The senior right-handed pitcher had the best outing of his season tossing a complete game, allowing just two hits and two walks and striking out a season-high 19 batters.

“Up until then I think my highest has been like 13 or 14,” said Rylance. “I had six strikeouts through two (innings) and I started my last outing against Roosevelt like that and I didn’t think anything of it. I don’t think I’ve ever been close to that number before, it was definitely different for sure.”

Rylance says the biggest factor to his dominant pitching performance was the off-speed that complements his roughly 90 mph fastball.

“I was pumping the zone with the fastball and then the biggest thing was my off-speed was just all there,” said Rylance. “Everything was in the zone and stuff gets a lot easier when you can pretty much throw anything you want in the zone.”

Going into the last inning, Rylance had thrown 93 of the 105 pitch limit for the game and had to work efficiently to get the last three outs. Rylance, after two quick strikeouts and an error, was granted one last batter to go for the complete game.

“Our assistant coach told me these guys are probably going to take the first pitch of every at-bat so you just need to throw a first-pitch fastball, they’re not going to swing, and just try to finish the game,” said Rylance of the last inning. “I struck out two and then a ground ball that was an error which brought me to 104 pitches so I had one batter left and that one went for like five pitches. But it was definitely in the back of my mind that whole last batter.”

After a 6-pitch battle, Rylance recorded his 19th strikeout of the game to give Watertown a 6-1 win to open the three-game super regional.

Kaden Rylance with the official scorebook following his 19-strikeout performance against Pierre in the super regionals on May 17 in Pierre. (Courtesy photo)

Rylance provided enough juice for the Arrows to take over in game one of the series, and eventually rolled that momentum into a 5-1 win in Game 2 for the series sweep.

“We knew that we were facing Pierre’s No. 1, and I think putting up six runs against him, offensively, I feel like against a really solid pitcher our team had a pretty good game,” said Rylance. “And going into game two we knew we had our No. 2 Talan Jurgens so we felt pretty confident he could keep the other team pretty low and we could win that one too.”

Rylance has had an excellent senior year for the Arrows in their first high school season since 2019, but he says it’s been a challenge for the team as a whole to get into the rhythm of a regular spring baseball season.

“It was an adjustment for sure,” said Rylance. “Right out of the gates you’re already in games that mean something. Not saying that the games in the spring in Legion don’t mean anything, but they’re out-of-state games. So you’re kind of thrown right into really important games for seeding points and leading into the postseason.”

The Arrows went 9-9 against Class A opponents during the regular season with two losses to Madison/Chester to open up the year, but when the Arrows’ ace is on the mound they’ve been as good as advertised.

“He can shut anyone down at any moment,” said Watertown coach Ryan Neale. “He’s the best pitcher I’ve seen, me personally, as a coach.”

Coach Neale says Rylance’s biggest improvement this season is his ability to limit long innings, including Saturday’s complete performance in regions.

“He’s done a phenomenal job of being around the strike zone more this year,” said coach Neale. “In the past, he struggled at times. Saturday it was just a different animal. It was something you’re not going to see very often, especially because Pierre’s not a bad team.”

While a 19-strikeout game for Rylance is a bit out of the ordinary, the level of dominance is nothing new. The Arrows’ ace has bolstered a 0.94 ERA this season with just three earned runs in 28.2 innings, striking out 56 batters in the process. Rylance is also batting just over .300 on the season with four doubles and eight RBIs as well.

“We were shaking hands after the game and Scott Raue (Pierre coach) said to me ‘Ryan, you’re not a 12-seed,’ ” said Neale. “But that’s because you have a guy like Kaden Rylance that can beat the best of the best. His numbers are ridiculous at this point and he’s our guy and we throw him against the best of the best.”

Rylance, who’s committed to South Dakota State to play baseball, earned academic and first-team all-state honors this year, and was part of the Watertown boys golf team winning the past two state championships.