MILBANK – The atmosphere was what Milbank wanted, but the final result was not Friday evening during the opening round of the State B Baseball Tournament.
Milbank dropped its first game of the tourney, falling to Scotland-Menno-Freeman-Canistota 8-2, but had the full support of the community.
“We had great crowds here today, all day long and every game. B baseball is really fun to see when crowds and stands are full. We had a hometown crowd here which was fabulous for us,” said Milbank coach Ron Krause. “The kids were excited, too. They looked in the stands and see all the people there and I said ‘You have to be excited for things like that.’”
SMFC jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, scoring two runs with two outs. However, Milbank responded quickly in the top of the second inning on a two-run double by Mason Meister.
“The kids really respond. They did. Because it (would have been) real easy when we were down 3-0 to put up tents and say ‘Well, we’re beat already,’” said Krause. “But we came right back and scored a couple runs. Unfortunately, for a good hitting team, if you can’t keep them off the bases, they’re gonna score runs and that’s exactly what they did.”
SMFC went on to put up three more runs in the third, one in the fourth, and one in the fifth to gain separation during the contest.
“It’s one of those things where you gotta try to stop the bleeding a little bit and then they picked up a couple other runs in there,” said Krause. “But we got a showing out of our pitcher. We had a young kid on the mound tonight.”
Aidan Kelly was the one who received the nod on the bump. Reese Rabe came on in relief in the fifth inning and didn’t allow a hit for the remainder of the game.
“Aidan Kelly did an outstanding job. Kept us in there and did everything he could to get it done,” Krause said. “We had to bring in Reese Rabe in relief and he did his part, too. We just couldn’t get many runs to keep us in the game.”
Mack Koplin led the Milbank offense with a pair of hits.
Milbank will continue its season against Dakota Valley this afternoon in an elimination game.
“They played a good game against Parkston, but I think they’re kind of near what we have for a team. They got some pitching, and we do, too,” Krause said. “We’re not done, yet. We have one more opportunity and I said that we gotta leave it on the field (Saturday) and hopefully good things will happen.”
Milbank 020 000 0 – 2 6 1
Scotland-Menno-Freeman-Canistota 303 110 x – 8 11 2
Aiden Kelly, Reese Rabe (5) and Jayce Jonasen; Bryce Sattler, Riley Tschetter (4), Erick Buechler (6) and Easton Tschetter. 2B – Milbank, Mason Meister; Scotland-Menno-Freeman-Canistota, Tayden Kerrigan, Rocky Ammann.
