Sioux Falls moves into another state Little League title game

Sioux Falls will shoot for its second straight South Dakota State Little League title Monday after another impressive showing Saturday at Collins Field.

Sioux Falls scored in four of the six innings and rolled past Capital City (Pierre) Little League 13-4 in a battle of unbeaten teams. Monday, SFLL faces the winner of the Capital City-Harney matchup, which is Sunday at the Canyon Lake Little League complex.

Capital City was riding an emotional come-from-behind 7-6 win over Rapid City Youth Baseball Friday night when it scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Sioux Falls slowed down that momentum with four runs in the top of the first. The defending champs built a comfortable 6-2 lead in the second inning before putting the game away with a four-run fourth.

Sioux Falls manager Joe Rempp said it was a total team victory.

“Everyone contributed – all of our reserves contributed, all of our starters contributed. On defense they all contributed in that sense,” he said. “I was proud of them.”

It was the second meeting this season between the two all-star programs, as Sioux Falls led just by a 2-1 score until scoring five runs in the fifth for the win in the East River Sub-Districts.

“We had a 7-1 victory in Pierre and I go, ‘that’s in Pierre.’ We forgot about that one and we played a new game today,” Rempp said. “Baseball is a unique sport where you can win one day and you can lose the next day. I just told them to come out with a level head and come out and compete, and that is what we did right from the get-go.”

Sioux Falls center fielder Tanner Charron opened the game with a double off of Pierre ace Maddox Dokken and scored on a single by third baseman Evin Edwards. After shortstop Talec Schlimgen reached on a fielder’s choice, he scored on a booming double by pitcher Eli Hart, as Hart’s bomb hit the top of the center-field fence and bounced back in play.

First baseman Kade Oehlke and right fielder Owen Rempp added RBI singles for a 4-0 lead.

Pierre bounced back in the bottom of the inning and cut the lead in half on a two-run double by shortstop Brecken Fuhrman, scoring center fielder Hayden Northrup and left fielder Landry Van Rokel.

Sioux Falls added a pair of runs in the second on RBI singles by Hart and Oehlke and made it a 10-2 game with a four-run fourth, highlighted by RBI doubles by Schlimgen and Hart and a run-scoring single by Grady Johnson.

Pierre scored its final two runs on an error and a RBI single by Jett Kirchenman.

Sioux Falls closed with three insurance runs in the top of the sixth on an error, a sac fly RBI by Chase Yde and a run-scoring single by Cooper Durick.

Hart had a big game for Sioux Falls with three hits, as well as picking up the win on the mound, giving up four runs on five hits in four innings.

“It wasn’t just me, it was my teammates, they helped me out,” Hart said. “I just want to give all of the glory to God; he just helped me through all of this.”

Oehlke pitched a scoreless final two innings, giving up no hits, one walk and striking out three.

“He (Hart) gave up those two runs early on but he settled in. He gave us a great outing,” Joe Rempp said. “We brought in Kade (Oehlke) in the end where he gave them something different to see and pitched phenomenal as well.”

Edwards and Oehlke added three hits each and Charron two hits for Sioux Falls.

“It didn’t matter what we threw -- curveballs, changups or fastballs -- they could hit it all,” Capital City manager Matt Northrup said of the Sioux Falls bats. “They were on it every inning. We just couldn’t get a 1-2-3 inning.”

Capital City was led by Fuhrman with two hits and two RBI. Matt Northup said his team will have to bounce back Sunday if they want another shot (or two) at Sioux Falls.

“It is a long road now definitely, but we’ll have a good game against Harney (Sunday). We have a couple of good pitchers left,” he said. “We’ll see if we can get past Harney and get another shot at Sioux Falls.”

The Sioux Falls All-Stars, meanwhile, get Sunday off and look to enjoy a little down time.

“We get a day off, so maybe we’ll go down to Mount Rushmore and just chill out, have a day off and maybe sleep in. All that good stuff,” Hart said.

Monday’s title game begins at 1 p.m., with a second game to follow if necessary.