It was worth the wait for those who weathered the rain delays as Dickinson beat Laurel in additional innings 10-9 in a walk-off fashion. Landon Olson supplied the game-winning RBI single and sent Isaac Daley home to score from the second base.
“It felt amazing,” said Olson. “I didn’t want to do too much (on the plate). I did too much at the beginning of the count and wanted to hit a line drive and it worked. “
It was quite a way to get to that conclusion. Before players settled in and viewers could get their first snack from the concession booth, storms rolled through Dickinson, delaying the game by nearly two hours.
It was in the lower part of the first inning when the players were called back to their dugouts.
Perhaps the first rain delay came to the Roughriders as they would allow five runs in the top of the second inning. Carson Weiler went two batter with loaded bases when Dickinson fell 2-0. Three more runs were scored from balls struck into the outfield as the Dodgers took a 5-0 lead.
“The rain delays are an odd thing,” said Dickinson head coach Tyler Frenzel. “In the first inning we brought runners to first and second place without anyone being out and benefiting from it. They shift the momentum and you just try to play it through. “
Jadon Bast helped the Roughriders get back into the game with an RBI single in the third inning. The hosts were down 5-2 at this point.
Weiler continued up the hill but ran into trouble again and allowed a triple with two runs in the fourth inning, which effectively knocked him out of the game.
A pickoff attempt at the second base bypasses the Dickinson defense. (Race Archibald / The Dickinson Press)
Dickinson responded with two runs from Nathaniel Jilek in the bottom of the fourth run to put the score at 7-4 as more difficult weather approached.
“We all just had to warm up and that slowed the momentum,” said Olson. “But it helped us later.”
Another rain delay followed, which lasted about 20 minutes this time, but this time should benefit the roughriders.
The game was named with Dickinson, who had runners in first and second place. On the first pitch when play resumed, Frenzel called for a double steal which was perfectly executed and the Roughriders then had two runners in points with an out and a down of three.
“We had them nailed down,” said Frenzel. “We talked about it and decided that we would do it on the first pitch.”
This would trigger a five-run rally after the delay for a total of seven runs in the inning to take a 9-7 lead. Riley O’Donnell’s two-time threesome ended the rally for Dickinson.
Drew Kovash was on the hill behind Hamlet and held the lead after giving up two lead-off walks in the fifth inning. He would give up the lead, however, after handing in a home run to Laurel’s Richie Cortese in the sixth game, who put the score at 9-9.
Troy Berg made a nice defensive game in the same inning when he put a ground ball on the field and threw the lead runner at third base with an out. It made sure a potential victim fly ball or base hit wouldn’t let the roughriders fall behind.
Dickinson had a chance to finish the game in seventh after Jilek dashed into midfield at second base with a soft flyball, but Tory Berg landed in the next at-bat.
It was the only tournament game played at Dakota Community Bank & Trust on Thursday, as the other six teams will play their first games tomorrow. Dickinson plays Sturgis with the first pitch set for 8:30 p.m. in the last game of the day
