MILBANK – History repeated itself in the opening game of the State B Baseball Tournament in Milbank.

Clark-Willow Lake suffered a 1-0 loss to Dell Rapids on Friday morning, the exact same score against the exact same pitcher as the first time the two teams met on July 10. Although CWL faced Tad Tjaden for the second time, Tjaden came with a different approach in the rematch.

“Overall standpoint, the same as we faced Tad the first time. He came out and he throws strikes, he dominates the zone. He mixed in more offspeed today, which kept our guys guessing more,” said Chris Bokinskie, Clark-Willow Lake coach. “We had mentally talked with the kids about going in and if he’s gonna groove fastballs, let’s get on those and put some pressure on them. And he didn’t. He mixed in a lot of off-speed.”

Clark-Willow Lake put up two hits in the contest, both in the first two batters of the game. Cooper Pommer singled to left, and Watson Grantham singled on a bunt. However, the runners were left stranded at the corners with just one out.

“When you’re facing a future college pitcher and you can put pressure on him and the team, I was happy when we got our lead-off guy on base and then we got him over with a bunt and stuff like that. You could tell the momentum was coming with us,” said Bokinskie. “We were playing well and then Tad goes out there and he just closes the door, and you can’t punch that run across. It’s huge, it’s very deflating.”

CWL had a pitching gem of its own from Josh Kannegieter who threw 6 and 2/3 innings, giving up just three hits and one run, that coming in the third inning.

“He did very good. Wildly effective is kind of what we said. He didn’t let kids dig in, but he did a very good job mixing in pitches and keeping them off stride. Keeping them out in front and having them pop up,” Bokinksie said. “Obviously, they pulled Tad at 79 (pitches) to keep him for future games, but we felt we had to stay with our ace on the mound and try to punch one or two across.”

The road to the title got a little bit tougher for Clark-Willow Lake, but after losing a tightly contested battle, the players believe they’re sitting in a good spot.

“So, after losing again 1-0, we preached that we are a good team. Mentally, defensively, we are very tough. We can’t hang our heads. If you hang your heads, you’re gonna come out (Saturday) and you’re really gonna struggle,” Bokinskie said. “I think it’s a huge mental aspect once you get into these tournaments. You lose a close game and kids start hanging their heads. … You gotta keep them upbeat and realize that you got a good squad, and they just need to play together; play their baseball.”

Clark-Willow Lake will take on Groton in the first game of the day at 10 this morning with the loser being eliminated. The two previously met on July 16, with Groton taking that game 5-4.

Dell Rapids 001 000 0 – 1 3 0

Clark-Willow Lake 000 000 0 – 0 2 1

Tad Tjaden, Lincoln Fersdahl (6) and Gauge Bunkers; Josh Kannegieter, Cooper Pommer (7) and Jakob Steen.