Today marks the opening day of the Black Hills Community Bank Firecracker tournament, a day many local baseball fans wait for all year. In a prelude to the tournament Post 22 battled Las Vegas last night and it was the biggest crowd of the year at Fitzgerald Stadium. If this is a sign of things to come it should be a great tournament.
There are some great teams in this year’s field and I’m looking forward to seeing them play. I always enjoy watching Post 22 play, but as the years have gone by I have attended more and more of the other games as well.
A couple teams to watch are Merced, Calif., and Ft. Collins, Colo.. Merced is one of the best teams in all of California with several players named to the Collegiate Baseball Magazine players to watch list. Ft. Collins is the defending champion and has won the Colorado state championship three years in a row.
Missoula, Mont., Las Vegas, and Cheyenne are all teams to watch as well. It should be a very competitive tournament. Does anyone out there have a favorite?
-Jake-

Rapid City Post 320 extended their winning streak to 11 games on Sunday after a sluggish start to the season. The Stars have started to play good baseball in the last couple weeks. Their team era is under three runs a game, they are hitting .349 as a team, and they are coming around on the defensive side as well. The test for the Stars will come in the next two weeks as they travel to play the Miles City wood bat tournament and then to Dickinson. Post 320 head coach Jim Brandt said he will know a lot more about his team in the coming weeks.
-Jake-

Post 320’s Brandon Rainford is back in a big way. On Saturday Rainford got his second start of the season after coming back from Tommy John surgery. He had the surgery last July and it kept him out all of last season.
As is often the case with Tommy John, Rainford has actually increased his velocity. On Saturday he was throwing consistently between 86-88 mph and topped out at 89 mph. He also has a quality breaking pitch.
It was the first time I’ve seen Rainford pitch and I must say I was impressed. I would even go as far as to say he has the best stuff in the area.
An article about Rainford and his coming back from Tommy John surgery will appear in Monday’s edition of the Rapid City Journal, check it out.
-Jake-

I had a chance to take my kids to check out a Post 22 game this past week. Unfortunately, it was the Pierre game but the end result aside, we had a good time.
It was the first time I’d been in Fitzgerald Stadium, and, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that is a great venue for American Legion baseball.
Andrew

Post 22 looked like a different team Thursday night versus Omaha Westside than they did only two nights ago against Pierre. Not to take anything away from Pierre, but Omaha is the defending high school state champions in Nebraska and they play outstanding high school baseball in Nebraska.
Against Pierre Post 22 looked young and unsure of themselves, and then they play Omaha and look confident and like a veteran squad. The Hardhats played their first errorless game in over a week, and hit the ball hard consistently up and down the lineup. Several young players really impressed me Thursday night. Caleb Stanley hit the ball hard almost every at bat, and can play a variety of positions well. Kyle Gorsuch made his varsity debut and played excellent at shortstop, he also added in two hits. Brock Thomas had a good game behind the plate and knocked in a couple runs. Jordan Carlson continues to hit the ball well, hitting over .400. These names aren’t the ‘big’ names for Post 22, but they are contributing in a big way. If Post 22 can continue to have young players step up, and the returning guys play to their potential this could be a good team.
-Jake-

Things won’t get any easier for Post 22 this coming week. The Hardhats probably enter the toughest part of their schedule first battling the Nebraska high school state champions Omaha Westside tonight and then next week starts the Firecracker tournament.
Post 22 has been on a little bit of a rollercoaster as of late. They went 3-3 in Omaha at the College World Series tournament against some tough competition. They seemed to be heading in the right direction going 4-2 at the Rich Hinseth tournament in which they took away many positives. But then they lost to Pierre giving up 17 hits at home. Coach Ploof is definitely looking for some consistency from his young ball club, and this next week will provide some real insight into what kind of Post 22 team this will be.
-Jake-

Legion teams in western South Dakota are getting better. Pierre’s victory last night over Post 22 is just another example of how evenly matched this region will be, come post-season time. Since Post 22 is hosting the state tournament and will be receiving an automatic bid they won’t play in the regional. But Pierre, Sturgis, Spearfish, and Post 320 will battle it out for two spots and they have all beaten each other. Pierre and Spearfish have beaten Post 22. Post 320 has beaten Spearfish, but was swept by Sturgis, so it is wide open in western South Dakota.
The thing I was most impressed with in Pierre’s win over Post 22 was they came right at them. They weren’t intimated by all the state championships or playing in front a big crowd on the road. Post 8 just came out, played aggressive, and had fun.
-Jake-

I can’t think of a better prelude to the Firecracker tournament than the Rich Hinseth Agency tournament. The ‘other’ tournaments in which Post 22 hosts throughout the summer, besides the Firecracker, have really become excellent tournaments. Not that they weren’t when I played ten years ago, but in the last couple years the competition has become even better.
Teams like Albuquerque, NM. and Great Falls, MT. headlined this year’s Hinseth tournament, but there wasn’t a ‘weak’ team in the whole field. This means Post 22 is playing top competition game in and game out with no break in the schedule.
When I played we had a little bit of a break in the schedule where we would play teams we knew we could pad our stats. I don’t think this is the case anymore.
-Jake-

The Albuquerque NM. team here in Rapid City for the Rich Hinseth tournament at Fitzgerald Stadium is the best hitting team I’ve seen all year, maybe in a couple years.
They played Post 22 Thursday night and their approach at the plate is something young players should see. Every batter in the lineup is aggressive even at the bottom of the order. If an Albuquerque hitter had less than two strikes on them they were taking hacks, good swings and looking to hit the ball hard in the gap. If the hitter was ahead in the count they sat on one pitch and when they got it hammered it hard somewhere. Bottom line is they didn’t get cheated at the plate.
Albuquerque pounded out 35 hits in their first two games of the tournament and this was against a couple solid pitchers for both Post 22 and Cherry Creek, Colo. If you get a chance go out and see them play this weekend.
-Jake-

Going into the top of the 7th inning on Tuesday no one anticipated Sturgis mounting a comeback against Chris Maks, who had been stellar to that point. Well, Sturgis did just that, but help of a very costly error at second base.

Today’s lesson is for ALL PITCHERS out there. When pitching, it must be automatic, that you take off towards first base every time a ball is hit to your left. You do this in case the first baseman cannot cover the bag; making you the primary person responsible for covering the bag.

The play that could’ve been the third out in the seventh inning, which would’ve given Post 320 the victory, happened just that way.

The ball was in the hole between first and second and the first baseman and second baseman went for the ball. The pitcher did not get over to first base right away, providing a target for his second baseman who fielded the ball. As a result the second baseman threw the ball wide of the bag as he was trying to act as a quarterback leading a receiver to a specific spot. In baseball, players are used to throwing to a base, not a moving target.

The skill of a pitcher moving towards first base on a ball hit to their left must be drilled at the little league age. And then when the players become 14 and up, it becomes an instinct to cover the base, not a reminder.

–jimmy–