Belle Fourche hangs on to down Clark/Willow Lake 9-8 (2024)

SPEARFISH — To kick off day two of The Alan Tellinghuisen Legion baseball tournament on Friday, the Belle Fourche Post 32 Broncs squared off against the Clark/Willow Lake Senators.

And the Broncs came out on top winning the game 9-8.

“They made it real close,” Post 32 head coach Randy Doran said. “Fortunately, our guys they just knew we could pull it out at the end.”

Solid pitching from the Broncs’ Aiden Voyles defined Belle Fourche’s stout defense in the first four innings. After retiring the Senators’ batters, Post 32 put up three runs with the first two coming off of a single with runners first and second. The third came from a steal to home by second baseman Caeyn Howard.

Voyles continued his hot start to the day with two strikeouts and a pop-out before the Broncs got another chance to score.

After two ground outs, a single, a hit batter and a walk set up a two-run single by Howard. The bottom of the second ended with a fielder’s choice as Post 32 led 5-0.

Voyles continued to shine on the mound in the third with another strikeout and allowing two ground outs to an equally impressive infield effort.

The bottom of the third was much of the same for the Broncs with two more runs coming off of both hits and costly mistakes by the Senators to push the score 7-0.

Howard started the fourth inning as a pitcher and got three straight outs on three at-bats. This set up another inning where Post 32 scored, this time getting one run off of a single to go up 8-0.

Things looked bad for Clark/Willow Lake heading into the fifth, but a major halt in pitching was enough to get the Senators’ bats going.

Despite going down two outs, the Senators set itself up for a three-run double to close the lead 8-3.

For the first time all game, Post 32 struggled at the plate and came away with zero runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

In the sixth inning, the Senators got going again scoring five runs to tie it eight apiece.

After the game was all tied up 8-8, Post 32 managed to grab the two outs needed to ensure they weren't losing.

Two early outs and two singles set runners up to score as right fielder Graham VanderBoom singled a line drive to center fielder.

The Broncs had a chance at getting an additional run, but a Broncs runner did not touch home plate after running down the third baseline. Instead the pitcher threw to the catcher who stepped onto the plate after the batter had returned to the dugout and the Broncs were called for the third out. Post 32 led 9-8 going into the seventh inning.

The Senators got two on base after starting the inning with a strikeout, but a line-out and a pop-out were Clark/Willow Lake could muster. The Broncs won 9-8.

“We've got five games in four days and, with those five games, I don't have five starters,” Doran said. “So we got to kind of play the numbers a little bit and pitch counts and everything.”

Thursday saw the hometown Spearfish Post 164 boys take on Clark/Willow Lake on the first day of the Tellinghuisen tournament.

Despite an early lead from the Senators, Spearfish had a strong second inning to go up 2-1 in the game.

The Senators were shutout in the third inning before an offensive performance gave Spearfish six runs and the 8-1.

The Senators were able to get the ball in play but it wasn’t enough to score any runs. Spearfish tacked on one more run in the fifth inning to win the game off of a run rule.

Spearfish and Belle Fourche get two more days of action with Post 164 taking on Belfield/South Heart at 9 a.m. on Saturday and the Broncs taking on Buffalo at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday.