Day 12: Championship Sunday of the 2025 South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament
Tom A. Savage/BV Journal
The Parkston Rays swarm pitcher Phil Johnson after winning the Class B amateur baseball tournament at First National Bank Field.
Jill Meier/BV Journal
The Harrisburg Woodies hoist the hardware after winning their first Class A State Amateur Baseball title on Sunday. The Woodies defeated the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks 10-8. For more photos from the entire 12-day tournament, check out the photo galleries at brandonvalleyjournal.com.
BRANDON - Champions were crowned in both Class A and B South Dakota Amateur Baseball on Sunday at First National Bank Field in Aspen Park. The Harrisburg Woodies edged the Renner Monarchs 4-3 to win their first Class A state title, and the Parkston Rays fended off the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks, 10-8.
Harrisburg Woodies 4, Renner Monarchs 3
The Harrisburg Woodies captured the Class A state amateur baseball championship with a 4-3 win over the Renner Monarchs on Sunday at First National Bank Field.
The win was a culmination of a revival of amateur baseball in Harrisburg. The Woodies last competed in 2019 in Class B. Because of Harrisburg's population growth, the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association notified the team that they would need to move up to Class A.
The team folded after the 2019 season, but returned this year and made the most of it, winning the title with a thrilling eighth-inning comeback against the 23-time champion Monarchs.
On Sunday, Harrisburg scored once in the eighth on a fielder’s choice to break a 3-3 tie. Augustana pitcher Tyler Mitzel, who just completed his senior season with the Vikings this spring, shut down Renner batters in order in the eighth and ninth inning to secure the win. Mitzel went the distance, striking out 11 and giving up seven hits.
Harrisburg also had seven hits led by two each from Riley Johnson and Mitzel, who also finished with a team-high 2 RBI.
For Renner, who defeated Harrisburg in the semifinals of the double elimination tournament on Friday by scoring six times in the 15th inning, Dave Borchardt hammered a two-run homer in the bottom of the first as the Monarchs led 3-1. It was Renner’s only scoring of the day.
Harrisburg and Renner have been the top two teams in Class A all season. As a comparison, the Brandon Belguas played Harrisburg and Renner a combined five times this summer. Brandon was outscored 56-8 in those five games.
Parkston Rays 10, Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks 8
The Parkston Rays won their first state title with a massive come-from-behind win over the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks Sunday in the Class B championship game.
Trailing 6-1 entering the eighth, Parkston came to life. The Rays scored nine times in the inning as the Hartford-Humboldt bullpen caved in the final two innings.
After Carver Hultgren pitched seven solid innings for the Gamecocks by striking out four with hits for the 6-1 lead, the Hartford–Humboldt relievers struggled mightily. Blake Svoboda walked two, gave up three singles, and hit two batters. When he left, Svoboda had thrown just 15 pitches with three strikes, and the Gamecocks’ five-run lead was gone with nobody out.
When the spiraling inning was finally over, Parkston’s 6-1 deficit turned into a 9-6 lead. Parkston built the lead to 10-6 heading into the bottom of the ninth. The Gamecocks cut into it with a two-run homer by Kyle Konechne, but Hartford-Humboldt could get no closer.
James Deckert, Jake Helleloid and Tanner Dyke all had two hits each to lead Parkston at the plate.
Phil Johnson, a pick-up player from Dimock-Emery, got the win on the mound. He pitched 4.1 innings and struck out four, including the final out when he got Svoboda looking as the Parkston sideline erupted.
For Hartford-Humboldt, Cam Quigley, Konechne and Brodie Herr had two hits each.
The Rays avenged an early-season 16-7 loss on May 9 to Hartford-Humboldt.
