The No. 2 Brandon Valley baseball team had just one hit entering the bottom of the seventh inning and trailed No. 8 Watertown 3-1. The Lynx then sent eight batters to the plate to slowly wrench the SDHSBA Class A state championship game away from the Arrows and win 4-3 on a walk-off walk by Caleb Severin.
The mood shifted once Brandon Valley went back into the dugout after the top of the seventh. Watertown starter Tripp Jorgenson was out of the game, Carter Buisker was coming in and the Lynx had Grady Gindorff, Brayden Knutson and Bryce Plucker due up.
“Never a doubt,” Brandon Valley head coach Jeremy VanHeel said. “We knew we could do it. We believed in each other as soon as we got the first guy on.”
Gindorff got the inning starter with a walk, then Knutson singled. Gindorff and Knutson advanced on a double steal with no throw after the umpire made a late strike call with three balls. Plucker then hit in Gindorff on a ground out.
Jack Blomgren struck out, leaving the Lynx one out left. Then, mayhem ensued.
Max Peters drew a walk and Bryton Stroh got down 0-2 in his at bat. The senior fouled a couple pitches off with his back up against the wall and his career on the line.
“Literally nothing was going through my mind,” Stroh said. “I was looking fastball the whole time and when I got down 0-2 I was just waiting for a curveball, but no curveball came. I just tried battle everything off and put a ball in play and do the best I can with that.”
Stroh then chopped one to third base that just snuck past Jorgenson to tie the game at three. He nearly left the base while celebrating with his teammates, who all evacuated the dugout.
“I didn’t know what was going through my head at the moment, but once I saw it get through I just looked back at everyone,” Stroh said. “I just wanted to start cheering with them and start hugging them.”
Ryan Fenton singled to load up the bases, and Watertown put Lincoln Schutt in to pitch. Severin came up to the plate, saw four consecutive balls and made a long hop down to first base, with his teammates forcing him toward the base before he started celebrating.
“I was just trying to slow down the game, take it one second at a time and not do too much,” Severin said. “Just calm down and do what I do.”
The junior knew his plate appearance either ended in a state championship or extra innings, but it wasn’t necessarily a spot he wanted to be in at the moment.
“I didn’t expect it to come to me,” Severin said. “I was hoping one of my teammates was going to do it, I’m not going to lie. When it came up to me, I was confident and I knew what to do.”
Brandon Valley’s last inning was something VanHeel has come to expect. He knows this group is resilient and plays for each other, and the intensity and urgency was turned up to 11.
“The last inning felt a little different, I’m not going to lie,” Stroh said. “We were yelling a lot louder, everyone was in it, no one was sitting. It was such an amazing inning, such a different feeling.”
The Lynx got to that point thanks to a shutdown relief performance from Luke Felderman. The senior came in after Blomgren gave up three runs in 1.1 innings and delivered 5.2 scoreless frames, giving up four hits and two walks while striking out five.
“I just knew I had to do what I had to do to keep us in that game,” Felderman said. “I had to pick up Jack, and I knew my team could do it.”
VanHeel had confidence in everyone he threw on the mound all weekend, but felt Felderman was the man for the job with the state championship on the line.
“Luke had it in him,” VanHeel said. “As soon as you saw the look in his eyes out there you knew he was going to get it.”
Fenton finished with two hits for Brandon Valley, Severin walked twice and drove in a run, Gindorff walked twice and scored twice, Knutson singled, walked and scored once, Stroh had a hit and RBI, Peters and Plucker each walked and drove a run in, Jacob Halseth scored a run and Blomgren drew a walk.
This makes two Class A state championships in a row for the Lynx, the first team to repeat since Brookings in 2016.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Brandon Valley baseball walks off Watertown to win Class A state title