Clark Area wins low-scoring Class B state semifinal over Honkers
· Yahoo Sports
May 26—BROOKINGS — It was certainly the shortest hit of the season for Charlie Luvaas.
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The Clark Area pitcher's jammed grounder up the third-base line might have gone 60 feet at most but it scored the only run of the day in a 1-0 triumph over Platte-Geddes/White Lake in Tuesday's Class B semifinal of the South Dakota High School Baseball Association state tournament at Bob Shelden Field.
The eighth-seeded Dinosaurs (12-6) clinched a spot in Tuesday's championship game against Madison/Chester/ORR with the sixth-inning RBI from Luvaas, who was just as good on the mound. He held No. 5-seeded PGWL to only two hits on 79 pitches with no walks and a mere two strikeouts.
It was a perfect storm for a Clark Area win. Luvaas pounded the strike zone, the Honkers were trying to be aggressive at the plate and could not muster up the key inning to overtake the lead. Combine that with Clark Area's spotless defense in the field and it was a sweet victory for Clark coach Chris Bokinskie and his crew, which includes players from the schools at Clark, Willow Lake, Hamlin and Castlewood.
"We felt confident with what we had with Luvaas coming out on the mound. He's kind of been an unsung hero for us this year," Bokinskie said, noting Luvaas is usually his team's No. 2 starter after Watson Grantham. "We knew he was going to give us every chance to win that game. ... The defense was great again today, no errors again."
In a game with a brisk breeze and a fast pace, both pitchers kept the opposing offenses in check until the sixth inning. At that stage, a passed ball on a third strike and a bunt single gave Clark two runners, and Luvaas helped his cause singling on an awkwardly bouncing ball up the third-base line to score Jax Tharaldsen and give the Dinosaurs a 1-0 lead.
"I was just thinking 'don't get out,'" Luvaas said. "I got jammed in there (on the swing) but it all worked out. ... It was definitely my shortest hit of the year."
The Clark squad, which was seeded sixth in its own region tournament before reaching the state bracket, continued its hot run a day after defeating top-seeded West Central 4-2 with a late rally in the quarterfinals. There were only six hits total in the game, with Clark picking up four of them.
"It was a heck of a game, both teams," Honkers head coach Jeff Kuiper said. "Unfortunately, we didn't get the key hit when we needed it, and we did hit it hard. We hit it at them. They fielded it, and that's the name of the game, field it and make plays."
Kenyon Kuiper, who threw 16 pitches for a save in Monday's win, started the game for the Honkers (13-3) and kept Clark under control for most of the day. He threw 6 2/3 innings before hitting the 105-pitch limit, striking out eight batters and giving up four hits and a lone unearned run with two walks. Isaac Leader earned the final defensive out on the mound for the Honkers, drawing a flyout after Clark got a runner on in the seventh.
The Honkers, who scored four in the sixth inning on Monday to defeat Vermillion 4-3 in the quarterfinal round, never found the winning offensive formula in the semifinal round. Maddux Van Zee had a one-out double in the bottom half of the sixth inning to give the Honkers a chance to tie the game but Luvaas squeaked out of trouble with a popup and a groundout to end the threat. Isaac Leader had the other hit for PGWL, a single in the second inning.
Honkers coach Jeff Kuiper said the team has never had much success with the patient approach in high school baseball, even if it's strategic to run up the pitch counts of opposing pitchers.
"Everybody says we're going to work the pitcher or the count, but jeez, we've been doing that, and it never always seems to work," Kuiper said. "This year, we tried to get a little more aggressive, especially with those guys in the plate and it's been good. Today, it just didn't get them in the hole."
This was the fifth-straight season the Honkers have made the final eight teams and the Class B state tournament. With a quarterfinal win over Vermillion, PGWL feels they have something to build on with underclassmen making up a strong part of the lineup.
"It's a tough one to lose, but I'm pretty proud of them," Kuiper said. "We only had two seniors and three juniors, so we're starting freshmen and sophomores. I thought they played pretty well. ... We finally got that (quarterfinal) monkey off our back, so hopefully next year, we can build on this a little bit with our young guys."