SIOUX FALLS — In a pitchers’ duel, Yankton came out on top in walk-off fashion.

No. 4 Yankton outlasted No. 5 Rapid City Stevens, 2-1, in an eighth-inning walk-off win during the Class A state quarterfinals at Ronken Field.

The Bucks will play either top-seeded Harrisburg or No. 8 Watertown in the state semifinals Saturday at 6 p.m.

“I’m happy for the guys,” said Yankton head coach Drew Lawrence. “We’ve been here a couple of times the last three years, had some heartbreaks. Last year, we happened to be the away team in an extra inning game, so it’s really nice to be the home team. I’m just happy for the guys. They battled, faced a really good pitcher today and we ended up on top.”

The second game of Friday’s quarterfinal round featured a pitchers’ duel between Stevens’ Brady Waddell and Yankton’s Samuel Gokie.

Waddell tossed seven complete innings, allowing just two runs on two hits and a walk, striking out 11. But the Bucks were able to get after Waddell early, plating a run in the opening frame off an Easton Feser double.

“Traditionally, our strength is pitching and defense and we’re going to try and find some ways to score,” Lawrence said. “Waddell was really good today. He was throwing 87 to 90 (mph) while also able to throw off-speed. He was really good, we got to him early and then he settled in.”

On the other side, Gokie allowed just one run on four hits and two walks in seven innings, striking out six on just 98 pitches.

Gokie was also named the Class A player of the year for the second-straight season before Friday’s quarterfinal game.

“It’s nice to have Samuel Gokie,” said Lawrence. “People look at it and say ‘He doesn’t throw that hard’, but I think that was a really good example of how he’s able to effectively pitch however he can. Having the back-to-back player of the year is really fun for a coach to have.”

Gokie was pitching a shutout going into the sixth inning until a lead-off double by Austin Flohr set up an RBI-single by Karter Brager to score the tying run.

In the eighth inning, the Bucks’ turned to Beck Ryken who tossed a crucial shutout inning to give Yankton a chance to walk it off in the bottom half of the eighth.

A lead-off error, walk and single filled the bases for Gokie and it took just one pitch for the two-time player of the year to end it, blasting a sac-fly to deep left-center field to score the winning run.

“I just saw a strike, something I could hit,” Gokie said. “With a runner on third with less than two outs, you got to do whatever you can to get the runner home so that’s what I tried to do.”