Class A state amateur baseball roundup: Brookings Cubs win twice to reach Class A title game
Aug. 14—MITCHELL — Class A amateur baseball tournament action continued at Cadwell Park on Saturday afternoon, where the Brookings Cubs won a pair of elimination games to earn a place in Sunday's title contest.
Having eliminated the Aberdeen Circus, 8-4, on Friday, Brookings continued its march by swiping an early lead and holding off the Black Hills A's.
Nathan Lease earned the win on the mound, tossing 8 1/3 innings and striking out a pair on 107 pitches (76 for strikes). Tyler Kreutner and Chase McDaniel each had two hits and one run batted in to lead the Cubs.
Dylan Gillespie struck out four in eight innings, while also pacing the A's with three hits. Matt Hill and Dawson Penticoff each added a pair of hits, as Black Hills out-hit Brookings nine to seven. Adam Deneke drove in the lone A's run.
In a similar fashion to the day's first game, Brookings jumped out to an early lead against the Renner Monarchs. This time, though, the Cubs blanked their opposition behind the arm of Craig Lasley.
The Brookings right-hander struck out four and went all nine innings without surrendering a walk, as the Monarchs found just five hits. Eight of nine Cubs in the lineup had at least one hit, with Jeff Fish and JaColby Anderson each getting a pair. Jared Tschetter, Sam McMacken and Evan Miller all drove in one run.
Renner's Ryan Hander tossed six innings with eight strikeouts to two walks but was credited with the loss. Leadoff man Ben Ihrke had two of the Monarchs' five hits.
Brookings' back-to-back wins, set up a meeting with the Sioux Falls Flying Squirrels back at Cadwell Park at noon Sunday for the Class A championship. Sioux Falls advanced to Sunday's contest and earned a day off on Saturday by way of a 6-1 win over Renner in a winner's bracket contest on Friday.
