“It feels pretty good. It’s good to not have to play two days later, save pitchers, so it feels good,” Dawson-Boyd’s Nathan Hansen said. “[Our mindset coming in] was just not giving extra bases, making the plays when you need to make plays, and it’s really it comes down to. I mean, we are going to hit the ball, just make the plays when it’s there.”

Once the Blackjacks got their bats going in the third inning, the offense continued to flow between the rest of the lineup. Notably, Eli Olson went a perfect 3 for 3 at the plate, while both Holland Schacherer and Kyan Moseng went 2 for 3. Dawson-Boyd finished with 10 hits to the Dragons’ two.

“This feels great for us. We haven’t been there [to the semifinals] for the last two years … So, it feels great. Feels great to be in the driver’s seat,” Dawson-Boyd’s Kameron Sather said.

Colten Bothun got the win on the mound, tossing six strikeouts in his five innings pitched while allowing one earned run and six walks. Sather pitched the final two innings, where he retired two batters while allowing one earned run and two walks.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Dawson-Boyd's Kameron Sather fields a ball and throws to first base in the Section 3A Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday against Adrian/Ellsworth at the Irish Yard in Milroy.

Holding onto a 1-1 tie after scoring a run in the second inning, the Blackjacks rattled off a trio of runs in the bottom of the third to build a 4-1 advantage behind aggressive baserunning and taking advantage of Dragon errors.

Moseng reached base on an infield hit as A/E bobbled to field the ball to allow him extra time to reach, and got into scoring position after stealing second and moving to third on a Hansen base hit.

Moseng was allowed home after A/E was called for a balk, and Hansen scored the next run shortly after with the help of a Schacherer RBI single, while the Dragons committed another defensive error.

The Blackjacks proceeded to get the bases loaded between Schacherer’s hit, and walks from Aedyn Dahl and Olson.

Schacherer accounted for the final run of the inning, stealing home on a passed ball.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Dawson-Boyd's Colten Bothun throws a pitch in the Section 3A Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday against Adrian/Ellsworth at the Irish Yard in Milroy.

“I feel like we all knew [our hitting] was going to come, we just needed to keep putting the ball on the ball and just keep going at it,” Hansen said.

Hansen at shortstop and Sather at third base made a handful of impressive defensive plays throughout the win, managing their areas and helping to hold off the Dragons’ offense.

Both Hansen and Sather accounted for two of the outs in both the third and first innings.

“[My defense], I mean, right away I made an error, but like everyone else, we cleaned it up right after that. That’s usually what happens — We mess up, but we usually clean it up,” Sather said.

Dahl, the Blackjacks’ catcher, threw down to Sather in the third inning for a successful tag-out of an A/E runner attempting to take third, while Hansen fielded a ground ball for the force at first.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Dawson-Boyd's Holland Schacherer takes a swing in the Section 3A Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday against Adrian/Ellsworth at the Irish Yard in Milroy.

Sather and Hansen combined for a double play in the top of the first inning to set the defensive tone early. With an A/E runner on second, Hansen again fielded a ground ball and threw to Ace Larson and first for the out, while Larson threw the ball right back to Sather at third for the tag-out of the runner.

Sather also had a big play in the top of the fourth at third, where he sprinted down the baseline between second and third to personally tag-out A/E stuck in a jam.

Additionally in terms of big defensive plays, Dahl also had a successful throw down to Olson at second base in the top of the fifth for a tag-out.

The Dragons scored the opening run of the day in the top of the first, from second base off a line drive to center field. Dawson-Boyd had a throwing error attempting to throw home, that allowed A/E enough time to score.

“Other than the one hiccup in the first inning, I feel like for the past two weeks, that was like our only error,” Hansen said. “We have just been nailing it, and it just has to keep going.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Dawson-Boyd's Nathan Hansen throws to first base after fielding the ball at short stop in the Section 3A Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday against Adrian/Ellsworth at the Irish Yard in Milroy.

Schacherer scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the second on a Larson sacrifice fly. Schacherer was at third after first reaching base on a leadoff single.

Dawson-Boyd didn’t let up off the gas much from there, adding in three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend to a 7-1 lead.

“Our defense and our offense are basically the exact same, like nothing is weaker than the other,” Sather said. “We trust each other, we trust our pitchers and the pitchers trust our defense.”

Schacherer scored on an Olson RBI double, Dahl scored on a Larson RBI single while Olson was allowed home with bases loaded when Moseng was walked.

Sather stepped in as pitching relief in the sixth, and the Dragons attempted a comeback rally. A/E brought in a pair of runs on an RBI single grounder to right field. Yet, Dawson-Boyd halted any more momentum from taking place with two runners on base and wrapped up the inning with a pair of strikeouts and a fly ball catch by Schacherer in left field.

Dawson-Boyd scored once more in the bottom of sixth with Hansen stealing home during Olson’s at-bat. Hansen first got on base with a lead-off infield grounder.

The Blackjacks opened up the postseason with a pair of wins in the North subsection, taking down No. 8 Lakeview 13-0 in the first round, and staved off fourth-seeded Canby 7-5 in the second.

Dawson-Boyd is on the hunt to return back to the section championship game, after missing the mark last season from its 2024 section runner-up finish. Dawson-Boyd took on Lac Que Parle Valley in the 2024 title game, where the Eagles won twice to earn a state tournament berth, 3-1 and 7-2.

“We just have to keep doing what we are doing, honestly. Just kind of tune the fine things, make the plays when they are there, and keep hitting the ball,” Hansen said. “That’s kind of the name of the game right now. Either team that we’re going to play on Saturday is going to be good, so we have to bring it.”

Last season, Dawson-Boyd fell to the eventual section-champions in Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the quarterfinals. But, the Blackjacks worked their way to the elimination-bracket final, where they came up short again to the Knights 5-4, one win away from returning to the championship.

The Blackjacks move to 15-5 on the season, and will next return to the Irish Yard in Milroy on Saturday to take on top-seeded Murray County Central.

BOX SCORE

BATTING

K. Moseng: 2-3, R, RBI, BB; C. Bothun: 0-2, 2 BB; K. Sather: 0-3, BB; N. Hansen: 1-4, 2 R; H. Schacherer: 2-4, 3R; A. Dahl: 0-2, R, 2 BB; E. Olson: 3-3, R, RBI, BB; A. Olson: 1-3, BB; A. Larson: 1-2, 2 RBI.

PITCHING