East rallies for eight runs in the seventh and eighth to end Hardhats season

SF East 8, Post 22 4

For six innings, Rapid City Post 22′s starting pitcher Jake Sullivan overcame defensive miscues, worked out of jams, and held a Sioux Falls East team scoreless that had put up 48 runs during the state tourney. But in the seventh inning, it all came apart for the two-time defending champs.

East scored four runs in the seventh, four more in the eighth, and sent Rapid City home with an 8-4 defeat Saturday in the South Dakota American Legion State Tournament.

Post 22 ends the 2011 season with a record of 45-20 overall.

Sioux Falls now has a chance to win their first state title under head coach Brandon Hunt, and the club’s second championship since Sioux Falls split into two Legion teams in 2001. Hunt is a Rapid City native and Post 22 product and his club will face Yankton for the state title on Sunday. Yankton must beat the undefeated East twice.

Rapid City led Sioux Falls 3-0 entering the seventh inning when the no. 9 hitter hit a routine ground ball that the Post 22 shortstop couldn’t handle. It was Rapid City’s 4th error of the game, and the club’s 108th of the season. Sullivan had battled through defensive miscues and worked his way out of scoring threats in the 2nd, 3rd, and the 5th innings. However, this time, East made Rapid City pay.

Sullivan walked the next hitter, and Brooks Cross followed with an RBI single, scoring East’s first run of the game. Ryne Lees then relieved Sullivan, and walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. The next hitter, Cole Halgerson, came to the plate at 9-for-19 in the tourney. He had hit 11 homeruns during the season. Halgerson smashed a booming two-run double to deep center tying the game at 3-all.

The next batter, Jon Hander put East up for good with a bloop RBI single to right.

Sioux Falls exploded for four more runs in the 8th, putting the game out of reach. Colin Schaefbauer, and Halgerson each had RBI singles in the frame, and Hander finished the Hardhats off with a two-run line drive base hit to left.

Halgerson and Hander each knocked in three runs and had two hits. Cross went 3-for-5.

Three of Post 22′s four runs in the game were scored without a hit and two were courtesy of Sioux Falls wild pitches. Jacob James scored twice on a wild pitch, in the first and fifth. The Hardhats tacked on their third run on a Jake Bohne sacrifice fly.

16-year-old Carter Wevik did all he could to keep the season alive for his club Saturday, going 3-for-3 on the night with a walk and two stolen bases, but he didn’t score a run.

Wevik finished the tourney 7-for-12 at the plate.

After East’s eight-run explosion, the Hardhats scratched out one last run in the ninth on a Newt Johnson RBI double.

Sioux Falls East’s last state championship came in 2004. The first game against Yankton is scheduled for noon MDT. If necessary, a second game will be played at 4 p.m.. The South Dakota state champion will advance to the Central Plains Regional Tournament in Dickinson, N.D. Aug. 5-9.

Post 22 Varsity 4 vs. Sioux Falls East 8