SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Dell Rapids baseball team knocked off Lennox for a spot in the class ‘B’ state tournament.
The Quarriers are the two-time defending champions and are looking to make it a three-peat. They moved to 18-2 with a 5-3 comeback victory over Lennox.
“We knew ahead of the game that it was going to be a dogfight, it always is with Lennox. Last two years, we’ve had to go through them and it’s always been really, really tough. And our guys are really good at not getting too down and even keel, so they rise to the challenge always. They’re a good group kids,” Dell Rapids head coach Danny Miller said.
After being down 3-0 in the third inning, the Quarriers picked up the pace of the game as Jack Henry went up to the plate to put the Quarriers on the board.
“Kind of made me settle down on the mound too. And then, once we score that first one, boys in blue wake up. So it’s fun. Once we get that first one, then we just kind of go play,” Dell Rapids pitcher Jack Henry said.
The “boys in blue” haven’t lost a game since April 14 and won 17 straight since and their recent success is credited to the seniors.
“We have a lot of seniors, we’ve had more seniors this year than we ever have. With that comes really good leadership. And we got we have a lot of guys that lead by example, maybe lead by voice and good teams always have that,” coach Miller said
The team’s mentality heading into next week is to remain focused and leave it all out on the field.
“It’s going to be a little bit of what we always talk about, we just have to compete, compete hard. It’s always our goal. As always, we want to be good teammates. We want to work hard. We want to hustle everything out. We want to be the kind of team that our town is just proud of,” coach Miller said.
The class ‘B’ state tournament is set to begin on Monday and Dell Rapids will take on Madison. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m.
