Mickey the Mouth
The Syndicate News Wire
- May 21, 2026
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In a rematch of the 2025 SDHSBA Class A baseball state championship game, No. 2 Brandon Valley got a complete-game effort out of Taylor Melby to beat No. 3 Sioux Falls Jefferson 6-1 to move to the 2026 state title game.
The Lynx will face either No. 4 Yankton or No. 8 Watertown at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at Ronken Field at Augustana University.
Melby threw in the late-night quarterfinal against O'Gorman, giving up a hit and a walk in 1.1 innings. He got off to a shaky start again Saturday, with Jefferson taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
The senior hurler settled right in after, finishing with six strikeouts, three hits allowed and three walks in 108 pitches.
"My arm wasn't feeling too good, so I got in and popped some ibuprofen," Melby said. "After that, about the third inning, I started feeling good and started just pumping them in."
Jefferson head coach James Borges felt his guys got away from their approach after Noah Kuenzi's early double scored Jackson Warnke.
"We shut ourselves down," Borges said. "We didn't execute, we didn't take care of the ball. At the end of the day, Brandon did both those things."
Brandon Valley got on the board with lots of small ball in the second inning. Bryton Stroh hit an infield single, then Ryan Fenton moved him to third on a perfectly-executed hit-and-run. Caleb Severin plated Stroh on a bunt single, the Mason Veld reached on a bunt hit. Grady Gindorff drew a bases-loaded walk and Brayden Knutson hit a sacrifice fly to give the Lynx a 3-1 lead.
Severin added to the lead with an RBI single in the third, and Gindorff singled home two runs in the bottom of the sixth to provide even more insurance.
"We practice many ways to win," Brandon Valley head coach Jeremy VanHeel said. "You just want to touch home plate more than the other team, however you need to do it."
Gindorff led the attack for Brandon Valley with a hit, a walk and three RBIs, Severin finished with a hit, an RBI and two runs scored, Knutson singled, doubled and drove in a run, Fenton singled twice and scored once, Maxwell Peters and Stroh each singled and scored, Jack Blomgren and Veld had a hit each, and Jaxus Colwell scored a run.
Caden Voss and Kyler Boyd each threw three innings for Jefferson. Voss was tagged with four runs, three earned, on six hits and a walk with two strikeouts. Boyd was charged with two unearned runs on four hits with two strikeouts.
Kuenzi, Brody Jacobson and Easton Riley had the Cavaliers' three hits. Kuenzi drove in a run, Jacobson, Riley and Nick Grabow each drew a walk and Warnke scored a run.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Brandon Valley baseball beats Jefferson in SDHSBA Class A state semis
Read the full recap...
The Lynx will face either No. 4 Yankton or No. 8 Watertown at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at Ronken Field at Augustana University.
Melby threw in the late-night quarterfinal against O'Gorman, giving up a hit and a walk in 1.1 innings. He got off to a shaky start again Saturday, with Jefferson taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
The senior hurler settled right in after, finishing with six strikeouts, three hits allowed and three walks in 108 pitches.
"My arm wasn't feeling too good, so I got in and popped some ibuprofen," Melby said. "After that, about the third inning, I started feeling good and started just pumping them in."
Jefferson head coach James Borges felt his guys got away from their approach after Noah Kuenzi's early double scored Jackson Warnke.
"We shut ourselves down," Borges said. "We didn't execute, we didn't take care of the ball. At the end of the day, Brandon did both those things."
Brandon Valley got on the board with lots of small ball in the second inning. Bryton Stroh hit an infield single, then Ryan Fenton moved him to third on a perfectly-executed hit-and-run. Caleb Severin plated Stroh on a bunt single, the Mason Veld reached on a bunt hit. Grady Gindorff drew a bases-loaded walk and Brayden Knutson hit a sacrifice fly to give the Lynx a 3-1 lead.
Severin added to the lead with an RBI single in the third, and Gindorff singled home two runs in the bottom of the sixth to provide even more insurance.
"We practice many ways to win," Brandon Valley head coach Jeremy VanHeel said. "You just want to touch home plate more than the other team, however you need to do it."
Gindorff led the attack for Brandon Valley with a hit, a walk and three RBIs, Severin finished with a hit, an RBI and two runs scored, Knutson singled, doubled and drove in a run, Fenton singled twice and scored once, Maxwell Peters and Stroh each singled and scored, Jack Blomgren and Veld had a hit each, and Jaxus Colwell scored a run.
Caden Voss and Kyler Boyd each threw three innings for Jefferson. Voss was tagged with four runs, three earned, on six hits and a walk with two strikeouts. Boyd was charged with two unearned runs on four hits with two strikeouts.
Kuenzi, Brody Jacobson and Easton Riley had the Cavaliers' three hits. Kuenzi drove in a run, Jacobson, Riley and Nick Grabow each drew a walk and Warnke scored a run.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Brandon Valley baseball beats Jefferson in SDHSBA Class A state semis
Read the full recap...