Mitchell spring baseball season ends with loss to Pierre in Class A playoff series
May 16—PIERRE — Miscues mounted against the Mitchell High School baseball team until they were too much to overcome on Saturday. No. 6 seed Pierre polished off a sweep of the 11th-seeded Kernels by way of a 6-2 victory in Game 2 at Hyde Stadium.
The Governors (22-8) won Game 1 by a 3-1 score on Friday night and now advance to the Class A state tournament on May 22-23 in Sioux Falls. With Saturday's contest tied at 1-all, Pierre broke open the action in the fifth inning. Though the Governors managed just one hit in the frame — an RBI single by Porter Hunsley — they capitalized on an error and three walks to make it 4-1.
Playing as the home team in Game 2 of the series, Mitchell scratched across one run in the sixth, as Ethan Hegg scored on a wild pitch. However, Pierre used two hits, a walk and back-to-back MHS errors to add two more runs to its total in the top of the seventh inning. The Kernels were retired in order in the bottom half of the frame to end the game.
In the end, Mitchell out-hit Pierre 4-3, but the Kernels committed four errors to the Govs' two. Only one of Pierre's six runs was earned. Mitchell opened the scoring on Saturday with Kaiden Allen tagging up on a Stratton Forst sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second inning.
Allen, Hegg, Bailor Kristensen and Brennen Penne had one hit apiece for MHS, while Carter McCormick and Ian Weber drew walks. McCormick allowed just one hit across six innings of work in his start for the Kernels. He finished with seven strikeouts and yielded six walks.