Honkers, Sticks currently lead the standings as Class B baseball postseason approaches

May 12—MITCHELL — Less than one week remains in the Class B high school baseball season in South Dakota, with Freeman/Canistota/Marion and Platte-Geddes/Dakota Christian/White Lake in prime position to host postseason games.

The Honkers, who hold a 9-2 record against Class B teams, are the No. 1 team in the standings of the West Super Regional, which includes the westernmost teams in Class B baseball. Belle Fourche (8-3) is the No. 2 seed and Winner/Colome (9-3) is the No. 3 seed. PGDCWL's only two losses came to teams outside their region, at the hands of Redfield Area and Lennox.

Winners of their last five games and eight of their last nine, the Honkers close the regular season on Wednesday, May 13 against Gregory County. Winner/Colome also finished the season strong with five straight wins, but PGDCWL swept the two regular-season meetings.

The Class B postseason format is as follows: Two districts of 5 to 6 teams each feed into each super regional, with the top-four teams in each district advancing to the super regional based on the seed-point formula used in other South Dakota High School Activities Association sports. Those teams can then be seeded 1-through-8 with no consideration for what district they are from. From there, the No. 1, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 8 seeds are placed in one bracket that is played at the No. 1 seed's home ballpark, while No. 2, No. 3, No. 6 and No. 7 are in the other bracket played at the home ballpark of the No. 2 seed.

The winner of each of the two brackets will advance to the Class B state tournament on May 25 in Brookings. Four super regions will have two teams each moving on to the state tournament. The final day of the Class B regular season is Saturday, May 16.

The rest of the West Super Region includes No. 4 Rapid City Christian (8-7), No. 5 St. Thomas More (6-5), No. 6 Gregory County (5-6) and No. 7 Chamberlain/Kimball/Lyman (3-10), while No. 8 Hot Springs (5-10) currently holds the final spot. Games in the West Super Regional are tentatively scheduled to be played Wednesday, May 20.

In the South Super Region, Vermillion holds the No. 1 position with a 14-2 record, ahead by about 0.25 seed points over Freeman/Canistota/Marion. FCM, the top team in District 6, has won seven games in a row and has a record of 13-1, including a 5-4 win over Vermillion on May 3.

Their only loss this season came at the hands of Bon Homme, a 9-4 Cavaliers win on April 22. Bon Homme is 10-3 on the season and standing at No. 5 in the super regional standings, just behind No. 4 Dakota Valley. Parkston/Ethan is No. 3 in the seed points with an 8-4 record. Games in the South Super Regional are tentatively scheduled to be played on Monday, May 18.

The Metro Super Region includes West Central as the No. 1 team in seed points with a 12-1 record against Class B opponents. Two-time reigning state champion Dell Rapids is No. 2 with an 18-1 record, putting those two programs in line to host, although Lennox is close behind at No. 3 with a 14-4 record. Sioux Falls Christian is the No. 4 team (10-3) with Tri-Valley (11-7) in fifth.