REDFIELD – The South Dakota Class B Amateur State Baseball Tournament gets underway today at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.

There are a handful of area squads in the field, including Redfield Dairy Queen which comes into the tournament with a 13-1 record and undefeated against Class B teams.

“I’m proud of the guys. We’ve had a good season and it’s nice to get a chance to go down to Mitchell and play in the state tournament,” Redfield player Lonni Stover said. “We’re very happy and very excited about it.”

After going undefeated against Class B teams up to this point, Stover says he’s confident, but knows winning the tournament is no easy task.

“It gives us confidence, no doubt,” Stover said. “But we know there’s some very good Class B teams. We look at the Corn Belt and some of those teams down south are very good. We know that, but we feel confident in ourselves and that the games we played all year will help prepare us for what we’re going to see down in Mitchell.”

Redfield faces an unfamiliar opponent in the opening round in the Burke Bombers at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Stover somewhat knows what he can expect from the Bombers.

“I looked at their stats and they have four guys batting over .400 and one guy that’s hitting .550, JJ Farner,” Stover said. “They have some good pitching as well; the Farner kid is their guy; his ERA is under 1. I’m sure we’re probably going to see him, so I know we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

Stover thinks the fact Redfield has never faced Burke is actually a positive.

“It’s fun to see somebody else different. And we don’t want to change our style of play,” Stover said. “We like to get on base, steal bases and take an extra base, things like that. We’re not going to change our game plan whatsoever.”

Redfield has gotten this far with a well-rounded team.

“We have very good pitching, hitting and we’ve been fielding the ball extremely well up until the Groton game (in the region),” Stover said. “I think we had seven errors all season, then we had six in that game. … Our strengths are definitely our pitching, our hitting, and being able to make the routine play.”

Not only does Dairy Queen feature talented players, the squad also comes in with something to prove.

“I don’t think being motivated is anything of concern for us at all,” Stover said. “We’ve went down (to the state tournament) the last two years and lost in the first round, and our kids are motivated to go back down there and get the monkey off our back and get a win, and take it one game at a time. We’re not looking any further than Burke right now and we’re just going to keep playing our style of baseball.”

Stover added a couple of final thoughts on his team.

“It’s a fun group of kids to be around,” Stover said. “They play the game the right way and they have fun. I just enjoy being around these guys and we’re looking forward to going down to Mitchell Saturday.”

Other area teams in the tournament include Groton Locke Electric which plays Lennox at 11 a.m. Friday, the Clark Traders who will face Wessington Springs at 5 p.m. Friday; the Castlewood Ravens who are slated to play Canova at 5:30 p.m. Saturday; and the Lake Norden Lakers who play Wynot, Neb. at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.