The Pierre Post 8 14U and 13U teams seasons came to an end on Saturday, but the 15/16 team made the semifinals on Sunday despite a loss on Saturday.
15/16
The 15/16 Post 8 team would fall 6-5 to the Yankton Blacksox on Saturday and after the walk-off single, by the looks of things, Pierre would be eliminated with no chance at the wild card. The third pool had five teams and two teams which included the Post 22 bullets were set to go 3-0 and both advance. However, the Bullets would lose to Yankton’s second team and give Pierre the wildcard and advance to Sunday’s semifinals to face Brandon Valley.
Pierre would strike for four runs in the top of the first as Parker O’Bryan would drive in two runs on a two out, two RBI single. Ayden Behm would then reach on an error scoring another two runs and Pierre was off and running. Yankton though would settle in not allowing a run through the next three innings. Sawyer Sonnenschein would hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth to extend the lead to 5-0 for Pierre. However, Yankton would score five runs, two unearned in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game. In the bottom of the seventh, the Blacksox would get an RBI single to walk-off the Eights and win the pool.
Pierre is at 2-1 in the tournament but will play Brandon Valley at 9:30 in the semifinals on Sunday. With a win, the Eights will play the winner of Renner and Yankton in the championship at 2:30 at Harmadon Park in Sioux Falls.
14U
The 14U Pierre Post 8 team would drop its final game 18-3 in four innings to Harrisburg MAG and were eliminated from the tournament. One of the top teams in the state at the 14U level flexed its muscle with a 10 run third inning. However, leading up to that point, Pierre had made it a 3-2 game in the top of the third. Carter Templeton and Will Eilers each drove in a run to cut the deficit to one. But, Pierre had five errors in the loss and eight of the 18 runs were unearned as Harrisburg would make the Eights pay for the mistakes. Pierre finishes the tournament at 1-2 and went 18-16-1 in 2023.
13U
The 13U team would pick up a 4-3 win over Huron on Saturday to finish the season at 1-2 in the state tournament. Overall the 13U team would 17-19 in 2023. Pierre would take a 3-2 lead in the top of the third and then a 4-2 lead in the top of the fifth. The Eights had just two hits, but took advantage of three Huron errors as only one of the runs were earned against the Huron pitchers.
