DICKINSON — With the Class A baseball 2022 regular season nearing its end, Dickinson High School entered their home field on Saturday confident as the top standing WDA team. They would prove it twice, defeating Legacy at home in a 23-8 doubleheader.
The two top teams of the Western Dakota Association went head-to-head at the Dakota Community Bank and Trust ballpark in Dickinson on Saturday afternoon. The Midgets (11-1, 16-2) held a comfortable lead through most of the outing, with the Sabers (10-2, 12-4) defense falling apart in game two.
DHS head coach Pete Dobitz said that all-in-all they had it under control the whole afternoon, crediting their six seniors as the driving force to making that happen.
“We got six seniors and those six seniors are really leading from the front,” Dobitz said. “They are doing whatever they need to be doing to make sure that the other guys have their mental game on because you are going to win a lot of games playing the game mentally not just physically.”
Game one final score of 10-5 does not accurately portray the aggressive early lead that Dickinson acquired, going unchallenged until the fourth inning. With just two innings played, the Midgets had a 5-0 lead, which they would nearly double with four runs at the bottom of the third to make it 9-0.
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Dickinson played smart short ball with their timely hitting, including two sacrifices from seniors Carson Weiler and Troy Berg.
Berg would also collect a two-run home run for the Midgets in the third inning.
“It was smooth sailing,” Berg said. “Had fun the entire game, just talking to everybody and getting loud. That's the fun part of baseball. That's why I enjoy it.”
Fielding errors allowed Legacy to put runs on board at the top of the fourth and fifth innings to make it 10-3 and they would attempt a rally in the seventh inning with a homer and sacrifice fly, but senior Drew Kovash tallied the final putout of the game from the outfield to end it there.
The winning pitcher was junior Jadon Bast, who held the mound for the first six innings, delivering six strikeouts. Weiler closed out the game, throwing 21 pitches and faced seven batters in one inning.
The Sabers had their first lead of the day at the start of game two with two runs scored at the top of the first. The visiting team lead did not last as Dickinson’s bombardment at bat would pressure the defensive to make small mistakes, leading to a lopsided 13-3 score that ended the game at the bottom of the sixth by mercy rule.
Legacy, throwing five HbPs and allowing five walks, gave up three runs because of this and allowed nine errors. An example of the effects of their razzled defense was when senior Britton Cranston was hit by pitch as the leadoff hitter in the second inning and then scored off of an error before the first putout.
Berg had a strong presence on offense with three runs, but was equally notable from the shortstop position, garnering seven assists and two putouts and was involved in the 1-5-3 double play in the first half of the fourth inning.
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Senior Aiden Haich, who pitched the entirety of game two, had a lukewarm start of the game with early walks and two earned runs, but besides assisting in the double play he collected four K’s and threw 56 strikes out of 86 pitches.
“He (Haich) struggled a little bit in the first inning, but it is all about finding your groove and he ended up finding it and we are pleased with that,” Dobitz said. “We are going to need him to step up toward the end of the year if we are going to get deeper in the tournament, so it was good to see him come on really well, threw a good game today.”
Senior Isaac Daley controlled the field from the first baseman position and led the Midgets in putouts, in both game one and two, with six and 10. Britton Cranston
In the entirety of the doubleheader, the six seniors contributed 29 putouts, 14 runs and 13 RBIs.
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