DELL RAPIDS, S.D. (KELO) — The Dell Rapids softball team cruised past Canton 24-0 in the SoDak 16, advancing to the first sanctioned class ‘A’ State tournament.
Dell Rapids sits at 11-1 on the season having scored 13 runs per contest. The Quarriers blew past Canton in the playoffs, checking the first goal off their list.
“I think we knew we had a job to do. It’s not going to be easy no matter what. We saw them earlier this year, and it wasn’t necessarily a close game, but anybody can make changes. Anybody can come back and play and be out for blood. So we knew we had a job to do, we knew that the state championship is on our minds,” Dell Rapids junior Jaycee Tebay said.
The Quarriers success stems from their offense, as they own a .479 batting average, third best in class ‘A’.
“When you have a runner on, it’s the little things, doing the little things right. When you’re pre-gaming and when you’re getting ready, it’s doing the little things right, you’re not taking a rep off. We’re not taking a rep off, we’re fighting. We’re doing a job every single at bat, we’re doing a job every ground ball we get hit, it’s the little things that are going to matter to get us to that state championship,” Tebay said.
Dell Rapids now enters the state tournament as the top-seed, knowing they’ll have their hands full with the challenges ahead.
“We’re hungry, we’re ready to go compete against those really good teams that we’re going to see. The whole Dak12 is going into the state tournament, and we’ve been able to play most of them. And a couple of them were really good games, really close games and we got a couple that we really want to compete that we haven’t gotten to see yet this year. So just going in playing strong, playing consistent, playing loose like we do ourselves,” Dell Rapids head coach Theresa McMahon said.
The Quarriers have won four straight games entering this weekend and they’ll look to continue their strong play starting Thursday.
“Keep it rolling, everything we’ve done all season long. Just keep consistent. Keep pushing, keep being a team, keep playing, and don’t let up, never let up,” McMahon said.
Dell Rapids will kick off the Class ‘A’ state quarterfinals on Thursday against Lennox. First pitch is set for 10 a.m.