State American Legion baseball titles keep piling up for Hardhats

This semi-retired sports editor says that baseball is a numbers game, so let’s do some numbers.

Rapid City Post 22 won its 44th American Legion state title Sunday, stopping Sioux Falls Post 15 East with a 5-1 victory. The Hardhats earned a state-tournament appearance by stopping Harrisburg 8-6 earlier in the day.

It was the Hardhats third state title in five years under manager Kelvin Torve. It was also Post 22’s seventh state title in 10 years and ninth championship in the last 14 years.

That’s pretty darn good, but there’s more.

Post 22 didn’t win its first state title until the 1961 season. Beresford won the first state title in 1926, and through 1960, Aberdeen was the big team on the block with 12 championships.

In the next eight years Post 22 won five titles and then went on a roll that likely won’t be matched by any sports team in South Dakota – 18 straight titles from 1970-1987.

The Hardhats latest reign of dominance came with four straight titles from 2013-16. Since then they’ve won in 2018, 2020 and now 2022.

Going back to 1961, Post 22 has won 44 titles to 18 state titles for the rest of the state.

And yours truly covered the team for the Rapid City Journal from 2013-2021, and the Hardhats won six titles in nine years. I did cover one game for the Journal earlier this season, so … close enough.

Good was very good

Post 22 right fielder-pitcher Harrison Good had a state tournament to remember, especially the last couple of days. Good was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player after hitting .452 with five runs batted in, while in his one pitching appearance, he held Sioux Falls East in the title game to one run on 4 hits for the 7-inning complete-game win.

He went into the game with an earned run average of about 14.

Scoring first usually is a good thing

According to Post 22 play-by-play broadcaster Adam Bertsch, the Hardhats were 27-6 this season when scoring first.

Sunday against East, the Hardhats (41-24) scored three runs in the first and never trailed in the game.

Being a fan is ...kind of fun

Statistics or numbers aside and on a personal note, this was the first state tournament yours truly I didn’t cover since retiring last fall as the Rapid City Journal sports editor. It was the first time I watched the games willy-nilly from the stands and did not have to rush back to the office on deadline.

To be honest, it was a blast. For the first time in about 40 years as a sportswriter/editor, I could cheer and I could even boo a missed call a little if I wanted to. During an apparent missed call in the field that went against the Hardhats, my boo was deep and lasted about 4.8 seconds if anyone wonders.

The tournament pass was well worth it as a civilian. I’ll do the same for the regional tournament.

Central Plains Regional teams set

Speaking of the Central Plains Regionals, the tournament field was set today. Because Rapid City Post 22 is hosting the tournament, it got an automatic bid even before winning the state tournament. Runner-up Sioux Falls East also will return to Fitzgerald Stadium next week. There will be one team from North Dakota (West Fargo Post 308), one team from Iowa (Moville) two teams each from Minnesota (Mankato Post 11 and St. Michaels Post 567) and Nebraska (Millard South Post 374 and Omaha-Creighton Prep Post 1).

The Hardhats will face St. Michaels at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday.

The other first-round matchups will have Millard South vs. Moville at 9:30 a.m., Mankato vs. Omaha at noon and West Fargo vs. Sioux Falls East at 3:30 p.m.

Gillette hosting Northwest Regionals

Cheyenne Post 6 goes into the Northwest Regionals in Gillette as the Wyoming state champion, its third straight title, 19th title in the last 22 years. Host Gillette will also be competing. Other teams include: Eagle River, Alaska; Fort Collins, Colo.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Billings Royals; Medford, Ore.; and Yakama Valley, Wash.

--- Richard Anderson