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The South Dakota Baseball Association released their All-State teams last week.

Class A

There are some great pitchers in this group including Alex Bertram (4-1, 37.2 IP, 50 K, 1.30 ERA, 1.24 WHIP), Anthony Lanier, (5-1, 38.1 IP, 75 K, 1.82 ERA, 1.22 WHIP),  Dylan Kirkeby (3-2, 39.2 IP, 56 K, 0.35 ERA, 1.02 WHIP), Kieran Luellman (3-1, 37 IP, 33 K, 1.13 ERA, 0.96 WHIP) and Peyton Zabel (5-0, 38 IP, 79 K, 0.18 ERA, 0.62 WHIP).

The Hitters were outstanding as well. Reece Ragatz (SFR) led the league with a .478 batting average and a .687 slugging percentage while Oliver Lockwood-Powell (SFL) (.424), Tyler Kruetner (BRK) (.400) and Gus Radel (SFR) (.400) all hit over 400 this year. Nick Hoekstra (SFR) led the league in home runs and Peyton Garbers (SFO) was tops in RBIs.

The State champions from Brandon Valley had two representatives. Dylan Kirkeby and Trey Hubers. The Roosevelt Rough Riders led the way with four on this list: Gus Radel, Jack Blogg, Nick Hoekstra and Reece Ragatz.

 CLASS A PLAYER OF THE YEAR

My player of the year in Class A is Peyton Zabel. As if it wasn't enough to be the Varsity Sports Football player of the year and the the South Dakota AA Basketball Player of the year he has to go ahead and do it in baseball as well. Peyton threw 38 innings with 79 strikeouts and a 0.18 ERA this season and oh by the way he hit 368 at the plate and had 9 extra base hits as well. Congrats Peyton Zabel

Class B

Seven juniors made the all-state team. Dakota Valley, Lennox, St. Thomas More and West Central all had multiple selections on the list.

Class B Player of the Year

It was a very tough decision for my player of the year but I believe it came down to Brock Anderson of Lennox and Luke Johnson of Dakota Valley. I gave the nod to Johnson who hit .571 with three homers on the year. That's amazing in this wood bat league. His OPS was 1.487 and he got at least one hit in every game but one.

Congrats to all the award winners in South Dakota Baseball this year.