South Dakota Diamond Report: Bon Homme, Avon lead area teams in softball standings

May 13—With just a few weeks left in the South Dakota High School softball regular season, Bon Homme and Avon remain in the best positions among Mitchell-area teams through the Class A and B standings as of May 13.

Now on a nine-game winning streak after two victories on Monday, Bon Homme (10-3) sits in fourth in the Class B standings with 43.846 seed points, but has just a narrow lead in points over Gayville-Volin (43.529). The Cavaliers trail Alcester-Hudson (44.438) by less than a point, but the Cubs also downed the Cavaliers early in the season.

The Cavaliers played four games over the last week, winning all by at least nine runs. The Cavaliers defeated Avon 16-6 on May 9, Parkston 16-2 on May 10 and then 12-0 and 12-3 victories over Winner and Wagner, respectively, on May 12. Bon Homme outscored those opponents by a combined 56-11 margin and have now won nine straight games.

With 42.944 seed points, Avon (12-6) sits in sixth, but has numerous teams on its tail. Teams six through 10 are all within a half seed point of each other. Trailing the Pirates is Florence/Henry (11-3) and Chester (9-2). Then, two area teams follow with Scotland/Menno (5-4) sitting in nith with Hanson (14-4) not far behind.

McCook Central/Montrose (8-8) is the only other area team in the top 16, sitting at 13th in the table. Freeman/Freeman Academy/Marion (6-11) sits just outside the top 16 in 17th and Howard (6-6) is at 24th.

Deuel (14-2) has separated itself from the rest of the field with over a 1.2 seed point advantage over Castlewood (13-3) in second.

Moving to Class A, Mount Vernon/Plankinton leads all area teams. The Titans (4-7) currently sit in 11th with 38.6 seed points, but Lennox (3-10) and Milbank (3-8) are both within .2 points. Wagner (4-14) isn't far behind either in 14th with 38.278 points. The top-16 teams qualify for the Class A SoDak 16 on May 27.

Meanwhile, at the top of the Class A table, West Central (15-3) has opened up a sizable advantage over the rest of the field. The Trojans sit almost a full point and a half over Tri-Valley (10-2) in second and almost two points over Dakota Valley (8-3) in third.

Top individual and team performances from the past week

* Winner's Tessa Sieh had a big two-game performance for the Warriors last Tuesday, May 6, in a doubleheader with Stanley County. The Warriors took both games, winning 22-5 in game one and 17-2 in game two. Sieh went 3-for-3 in game one with two doubles and a single. She also drove in five runs and in game two, she added another two hits and two RBIs to give her five total hits and seven RBIs.

* Olivia Kayser put together yet another impressive two-way performance for Hanson in a 14-5 victory over McCook Central/Montrose last Thursday, May 8. In the batter's box, she went 5-for-5, driving in a team-high four runs in the process. On the mound, she pitched all seven innings for the Beavers, allowing six hits, five runs (three earned) and striking out 13.

* Howard has won three games over the last week of action. The Tigers swept a doubleheader against Deubrook on May 8, winning 16-9 and 12-7. Over those two games, Tana Hoyer got the offense rolling with five hits, five runs scored and six RBIs. She then also had three more hits, RBIs and four runs scored in Howard's 22-10 victory over Kingsbury County on May 9.

* Wagner had one of the most impressive victories among area teams in the last week, defeating Winner 20-1 on May 12 in three innings of play. The Red Raiders entered the third inning up 4-1 before exploding for a staggering 16 runs in the third. Every batter in Wagner's lineup had at least two hits and an RBI on the day, while as a team, the Red Raiders had 19 hits.

* Chamberlain picked up its second victory of the season on May 6 in a 17-7 victory over Parker. It's only the third time this year that the Cubs eclipsed the 10-run mark, thanks in large part to 13 runs over the third and fourth innings. Chamberlain finished with 16 total hits and all but one batter had at least one base hit.