Wynot Expos top Freeman for State berth

HARTINGTON — The Wynot Expos won two out of three games at the South Central District tournament to advance to this week’s South Dakota Amateur Baseball State Class B Tournament.

The Expos (10-9) clinched the second seed out of the South Central League with an 8-4 win over Freeman Thursday and that was enough after dropping a 6-2 decision to Lesterville two days earlier.

The Expos open the single elimination state tournament at 5:30 p.m. Friday against Four Corners.

“We played well during Districts,” Expos head coach Lee Heimes said. “We got ahead of teams early and put the pressure on them. We need to continue to be sharp defensively. Our pitchers did a great job of attacking the hitters. We needed a few more clutch hits to drive in runs with runners in scoring position.”

In the Freeman win, the Expos got off on the right foot with four runs in their opening at bat, thanks to a three-run triple by Jackson Sudbeck.

Wynot added a run in the second inning, and they were able to hold on from there.

Jackson Sudbeck pitched a complete game while giving up 10 hits.

“He kept the hitters off balance and attacked them,” Heimes said.

Jalen Wieseler hit a two-run homerun in the sixth inning to wrap the win up and finished 4-for-5 with two RBI.

Landon Wieseler and Heimes both went 3-for-5.

“Defensively we played really well behind Jackson on the mound,” Heimes said.

Against Lesterville, an early lead did not hold up as the Expos gave up three runs in the fifth inning to trail 3-1 and they had to play catch up from there.

Dain Whitmire pitched a solid game according to Heimes as he gave up two unearned runs as the starters.

Jalen Wieseler pitched in relief and gave up two runs in the ninth.

The Expos recorded 13 hits, but “missed the timely hits” according to Heimes.

Landon Wieseler had three hits in the game to lead the Expos’ attack while Lee Heimes, Scott Morrison, and Ryan Heimes had two hits apiece for Wynot.

“We had runners on base, we just needed the big hit to drive the runners in,” Heimes said. “We also needed to be a little better defensively: We gave up two unearned runs. Dain took the loss, but pitched well.”

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