Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton pitcher Tyler Wichmann spikes his glove in celebration after striking out the final batter in the Knights' 5-4 win over Dawson-Boyd in the Section 3A baseball tournament elimination bracket on Tuesday at the Milroy Irish Yard. RTR now heads to the section championship game against Yellow Medicine East at Milroy Yankee Field on Thursday.

MILROY — Russell-Tyler-Ruthton put together yet another strong effort against the Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks in the Section 3A baseball tournament’s elimination bracket with a spot in the section final on the line. The Knights trailed by a pair of runs early but capitalized on a series of Dawson-Boyd errors in the fifth inning to claim a 5-4 win.

RTR now advances to the 3A championship game against Yellow Medicine East. The game is a rematch of the 2023 final, in which YME’s Nolan Hildahl hit a walk-off double to send the Sting to their first-ever state tournament. Like last time, the Sting enter the tournament out of the winner’s bracket while RTR enters out of the elimination bracket.

“You’ve got to love revenge. We’ve got to change up the story,” RTR outfielder Eli Determan said of the rematch. “Coming back from a two-run lead is big, especially against a one seed. We know what we’re expecting now and know what we need to fix.”

Dawson-Boyd finishes the season with just four losses, three coming against RTR in its season-opener, the 3A tournament winner’s bracket and the 3A tournament elimination bracket. Dawson-Boyd finishes one win shy of returning to the section championship game, where it finished its season last year with a pair of losses to Lac qui Parle Valley.

Dawson-Boyd head coach Daren Swenson credited his team for putting in the work over the summer and in the preseason in order to put itself in a position to have another quality season this year.

“We filled the positions that we needed, had a good 14-game winning streak, and then we lose one to RTR and then come back and lose in the elimination bracket,” Swenson said. “It’s always hard keeping on the momentum thinking we’ve got it. Bottom line, we had errors and that affects the game so much, but we can’t take the season from what happened just today. We had a successful season, first time ever winning [the Camden] Conference. It’s huge for the program. These guys never quit, they wanted to keep on going.”

The Knights started the fifth inning trailing by a run but shifted all momentum in their favor quickly. Tyler Wichmann singled and advanced to second on a passed ball when Eli Determan stepped up to the plate with one out. Determan sent a ball into left field to advance Wichmann to third, and an errant throw from the outfield bounced into the dugout to allow Wichmann to advance home for the tying run.

“We just tried to figure it out. We were struggling and then we just started making contact,” Determan said of the rally. 

Determan moved over to third base on the error, and Drew Chandler came up with a single to score Determan and give the Knights a 3-2 lead.

Dawson-Boyd relieved Eli Olson with Colten Bothun after the third run. Olson gave up one earned run on five hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings. Bothun gave up one unearned run on a hit and a walk over 2 2/3 frames.

Bothun retired the first batter he faced, but Chase Christianson sent a fly ball into right field before a throwing error turned a potential play at the plate to Chandler scoring. Sean Griesse also reached base on an infield throwing error by the Blackjacks, scoring Christianson to give the Knights 5-2 lead after entering the inning in a one-run deficit. 

“The biggest thing is rushing the play… Once we start thinking about it, your mind is out of it and you end up doing something as a negative, whether it’s a ball going into the dirt, missing a player or throwing over someone,” Swenson said. “Toward the end of the season, we just had some games that we shouldn’t have had.”

Wichmann threw 2 1/3 shutout innings of relief for RTR to close out the victory. He limited the Blackjacks to one hit and no walks on an efficient 31 pitches. He also struck out three batters to earn the win on the mound, including a five-pitch strikeout to secure a 1-2-3 final inning. Wichmann’s two hits and a walk gave him a team-high three times safely reaching base.

“I felt good coming up there during the sixth inning when Braden got out, I just felt good,” Wichmann said. “Fastball was there for me, and I felt smooth.”

Bothun sent a double deep into right field to get into scoring position in the first inning. He advanced to third when Tygan Long walked on a wild ball four, and an errant throw to third allowed him to go home for the game’s first run.

Long advanced to second on the errant throw and Grayson Olson sent another ball deep into right field for an RBI triple, doubling the Blackjack advantage. 

A Wichmann walk, a Determan double and Drew Chandler getting hit by a pitch loaded the bases for the Knights with one out in the top of the third. Seth Cowell grounded out to short to score Wichmann, cutting the deficit in half, but a pop out in the next at-bat ended the rally. 

Sather singled with one out in the bottom of the fifth and a late errant throw advanced him to second and a ground out moved him to third. Long walked and stole second, and the throw to second sailed high and allowed Sather to run home. Hansen then singled in Long to bring the Blackjacks back within a run before a pop out to the catcher ended the inning.

After Hansen’s hit, RTR brought in Wichmann to relieve Brayden Chandler on the mound. Chandler gave up two earned and two unearned runs over 4 2/3 innings, surrendering four hits and four walks with four strikeouts on 77 pitches. 

The Knights put a runner on second with no outs in the fourth, but Nathan Hansen made a diving grab at short before throwing it to second for a double play to take the tying run off the basepaths. 

RTR will now prepare to take on YME at Yankee Field in Milroy on Thursday at 5 p.m. with a second game set for 7 p.m. if RTR wins the first. The Knights will need to win consecutive games to reach their first-ever state tournament, while YME needs to win one of the two games in order to make it back to the state tournament for the second time in three seasons.

“We’ve been there for the last couple of years. My brother’s [former RTR and current Southwest Minnesota State University pitcher Cody Wichmann] senior year, I know we lost it, but I think we’ve got a good chance this year,” Tyler Wichmann said. “I think the boys are ready, we need to rock and roll and I think we’ve got it.”

Dawson-Boyd finishes its season at 18-4 on the year and graduates a group of five seniors in Long, Beau Johnson, Ashton Swendra and Collin and Grayson Olson.

“They’ve been great leaders, all five of them, on and off the field,” coach Swenson said. “They pick each other up, they get going for practice, they get going before the season starts… It just shows in how they hold themselves after games like this. They’ve been good leaders for our underclassmen to pick up on and it will help us as the program grows.”