Wynot, Crofton set for post-season action

WYNOT — Now it’s the real deal for South Dakota Amateur Baseball play.

The Wynot Expos (8-10), the defending champs, take a No. 5 seed into the District 6B tournament that begins 8 p.m. Thursday in Menno as the fields’ No. 5 seed.

They take on No. 4 Lesterville in a first-round contest.

A victory would push Wynot into an 8 p.m. Tuesday winner’s bracket contest while a loss would push the Expos into a win or go home, 5 p.m. Sunday game in the loser’s bracket. The opponent will come from the mirror image result from the Tabor/ Scotland winner.

“We got off to a slow start this year, but as the season went along, we started playing some better baseball,” player/coach Lee Heimes said. “Our pitching is our biggest strength.”

Wynot split with Lesterville during the season.

The Expos head into the playoffs after going 1-1 last week, beat Scotland 10-0 on a Dain Whitmire and Jackson Sudbeck combined shutout and Devon Lammers’ 3-for-4 outing with a homer.

The Expos fell 6-1 at Yankton Tappers as Jalen Wieseler threw eight innings, allowing only four earned runs.

The Crofton Bluejays (10-8) will be the tournament’s No. 3 team despite wrapping the season with a 1-2 week.

Crofton begins play 6 p.m. Friday as the No. 3 seed against No. 6 Freeman.

A win pushes Crofton to an 8 p.m. Tuesday game against the winner of Menno/Irene while a loss will lead to an 8 p.m. Sunday game against the loser of that same, opposite contest.

“In the regular season, we got off to a slow start but we ended the season with a good push,” player/coach Ben Hegge said. “We found out in the regular season anybody can beat anyone on any given night. We can’t overlook anyone.”

The Bluejays have relied on their pitching and Hegge said the guys on the bump will have to stay top notch.

“Every team gets a new record,” Hegge said. “It’s important to take things one game at a time. Freeman beat us in the first round last year, and they are a very good team. It’s going to be a great game on Friday night.”

Crofton dropped an 8-1 decision to Lesterville and a 11-3 contest against the South Central champs, the Yankton Tappers (17-1) in the Thursday season finale.

In between those contests, Crofton held on to beat the Yankton Lakers, 3-1.

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