Pierre 16, Post 320 5

For the second straight year, the Post 320 Stars have failed to make it out of the Region 3A tournament.

Needing a win to earn a bid into the state tournament and keep their season alive, the Stars came out flat in a 16-5 thrashing from the hands of Pierre Post 8.

Post 320 started the game off sharp as third baseman Hunter Lacroix drove a single through the right side with Danny Bareis on second base.  Bareis came barreling around third but a perfect throw from Pierre right fielder Nolan Merrill nailed Bareis by three steps.

The seemingly innocent play in only the first inning set fire to the Pierre lineup as they proceeded to score at least one run through the next five innings.  Pierre took advantage of costly Post 320 miscues in all five innings to push across their runs.

With the game scoreless in the top of the second inning, Post 320 starting pitcher John Johnson began to lose control hitting four out of the first seven hitters in the inning.  All four hit batters resulted in runs with three scoring, and the fourth bringing in a run as Pierre jumped on top 4-0.

“Basically, probably our best pitcher all year just didn’t quite have it today,” said Brandt after the game.  “He (Johnson) has great technique and I think a pretty good future ahead of him.”

Pierre chased Johnson after scoring two more runs, including the fifth hit batter of the day in the top of the third, which gave Post 8 a 6-0 lead.

Stars’ relief pitcher Lincoln Feist came in and surrendered two runs courtesy of a passed ball and a wild pitch, but momentarily quieted the Post 8 bats.  The Stars came out in the bottom half of the inning needing to put up some runs to keep the game in hand, but instead went down 1-2-3 on just three pitches.

Down 8-1 with Pierre in complete control, the Stars showed some life in the bottom half of the fifth, rattling off four runs in the inning.

Left fielder Kyle Gorsuch led off the inning with an impressive shot deep into the night sky in left for his team leading sixth homerun of the season.  The Stars collected six hits in the inning to pull within three and seemingly shift the momentum to their side.

Pierre had other ideas, however, as they exploded for eight runs in the top of the sixth to completely shut down any Post 320 momentum.

The final score was Pierre 16, Post 320 5.

“I thought we played very relaxed after having come in off a tough loss,” said Pierre head coach Bob Sullivan.  “We knew the job and what we needed to do and that was put pressure on them.”

For head coach Jim Brandt, the loss brings an end to a long career spent in Rapid City baseball.  In his seven years at the helm of Post 320 Brandt brought the team to four state tournament appearance, finishing runner-up in 2009.  The Stars never experienced a losing season during Brandt’s reign as head coach, compiling a 262-159 record in those seven years.

Instead of spending time looking back over his career, Brandt could only think of the future of the program under new coach Paul Pool.  Brandt referred to multiple players as “part of the future” and talked of Pool’s new philosophy of moving the program forward.

“He told them ‘If you’re out for another sport, that’s fine, but we’ll have a weightlifting program we’ll have a fall program and if you’re not there don’t bother coming out.’”

The Stars finish the year with a 25-21 record, while Pierre moves on to face Post 22 in the Region 3A Championship on Friday starting at 5:30 p.m..