CLARK – The Clark Dinosaurs may have been an underdog heading into the post season, but they are now among the final eight teams battling for a State B High School Baseball championship.
Clark will once again face a stiff challenge, heading into next week’s state tournament as the eighth seed. The Dinosaurs will take on top-seeded West Central at 10 a.m. Monday during the two-day state tournament in Brookings.
The Dinosaurs pulled out two wins during the North Super Regional this past week, holding off Milbank 5-4 and then taking down second-seeded Sisseton-Britton-Webster 6-2.
Clark coach Chris Bokinskie talked about the benefits of securing the tight win over Milbank.
“That was a game where we were up four runs going into the last inning and we were preaching to the kids you have to finish the job,” Bokinskie said. “That close game helped us mentally prepare, knowing that no one is going to roll over in this region tournament and we need to close games out.”
Bokinskie said he’s not giving his team a specific message heading into the state tournament. He wants the players to continue to play the way they have been.
“It’s just go out there and do what we’ve been doing,” said Bokinskie. “We need to do what got us here. We’re playing the number one team in the state and playing all the other best teams in the state, so they’re going to put the ball in play. It’s more about just putting the ball in play, making the plays defensively, and then offensively have the same philosophy.”
West Central punched its ticket to the state tournament with a 10-2 win over Hanson-Bridgewater-Emery and a 5-2 win over Sioux Falls Lutheran.
Madison-Chester-Oldham-Ramona-Rutland is the second-seeded team in the state tourney and collected a pair of one-run victories in the other half of the North Super Regional.
Madison defeated Elkton-Lake Benton 3-2 and then edged Groton 4-3 for the right to advance to the state tourney.
The Bulldogs will face seventh-seeded Winner-Colome at 5 p.m. on Monday. Winner-Colome has had a potent postseason offense, scoring 34 runs in two games, putting up 16 against Hot Springs and 18 against Belle Fourche.
The other two games have fifth-seeded Platte-Geddes-Dakota Christian-White Lake against fourth-seeded Vermillion, and sixth-seeded Dakota Valley against third-seeded Lennox.
PGDCWL has outscored its two postseason foes 20-8, while Vermillion got a 10-5 win over Scotland-Menno, then an 11-1 win over Bon Homme.
Dakota Valley had a dominant 10-0 win over Beresford Area to open the postseason, then defeated Freeman-Canistota-Marion 8-1. Lennox defeated Baltic 13-3 before knocking off traditional power Dell Rapids 7-4.
