MITCHELL — Powered by a shutout pitching performance in Game 1 and an offensive outburst in Game 2, the Mitchell High School baseball team inched closer to a top-four postseason seed with a doubleheader sweep of Yankton on Friday night at Cadwell Park.
The Kernels, fourth in the Class A seed-point standings, outscored the Bucks, sixth in the standings, by a combined 14-1 across 12 innings, winning 3-0 and 11-1.
Landon Waddell pitched six shutout innings with eight strikeouts while surrendering just three hits and three walks in Game 1, extending his streak to 22 2/3 innings pitched this season without allowing an earned run.
The scoring started for Mitchell courtesy of a pair of Yankton throwing errors. First, a pickoff attempt gone wrong allowed Jace Larson to advance from first to third base before another error on the throw to third (on the same play) scored Larson in the bottom of the second inning. The Kernels loaded the bases later in the inning, but Samuel Kampshoff recorded a strikeout on a two-out full count to end the threat.
After Brock Sparks reached base safely in the fourth inning, a rare balk advanced him to second. Moments later, a Carson Fahey single scored Sparks to double the Mitchell advantage. Larson scored again in the sixth to tack on the final run off a Karter Sibson RBI single.
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Despite having two baserunners with no outs in both the sixth and seventh innings, the Bucks were held scoreless due to quality pitching and defense.
Dylan Soulek had two hits in three at-bats in the game, while Jake Helleloid picked up a save in relief of Waddell.
Kampshoff pitched six innings, striking out four with seven hits and two walks allowed for the Bucks.
After picking up the save, Helleloid started Game 2, where he would put up a similarly dominant effort to that of Waddell. The first eight outs of the contest came by way of Helleloid strikeouts, as he went four innings with 10 strikeouts to three hits and two walks.
Meanwhile, the Mitchell offense kept adding runs. Larson knocked in a pair of runs on a first-inning single and was later followed by a bases-loaded walk drawn by Sparks and a hard-hit ball by Fahey that the Yankton third baseman mishandled as a run scored.
The Kernels scored four runs in the first inning and two more in the second before Connor Teichroew notched the lone Yankton RBI of the day in the third. However, Mitchell answered with two more runs in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI double by Sparks and a Soulek sacrifice fly to take an 8-1 lead.
With that lead in the bottom of the fifth, the Kernels had three more runs cross the plate, ending the game at 11-1 due to the 10-run rule.
Sparks was 2-for-2 with a walk, two RBI and two runs scored in Game 2 to lead the Mitchell hitters, as Peyton Schroder came in to toss one scoreless inning in relief of Helleloid.
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Yankton’s Joe Gokie took the loss with five hits and three walks surrendered in three innings.
Mitchell (15-5) wraps up the regular season with a trip to Pierre for a doubleheader on Tuesday, May 17.
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