Photo: Courtesy/Nate Russell
WATERTOWN, S.D. — Fresh off a hard-fought Super Regional series victory over Palace City, the Watertown Post 17 Junior Legion baseball team carries momentum and a battle-tested resilience into the state tournament.
Through more than 54 games, Post 17 head coach Nate Russell has repeatedly come back to one word to describe his squad: resilience.
“They’ve faced a lot of adversity throughout the season,” Russell said. “You’re at a much higher level than you’re probably used to at this point, and so navigating those things gets to be a little bit taxing mentally. Resilience is the biggest word that comes to mind.”
A major focus for Russell has been shifting the team’s definition of success. In a sport where individual statistics often dominate mindsets, the coaching staff stresses the value of situational execution—such as driving up pitch counts or moving baserunners.
“When you can extend the opposing pitcher for 10 or 11 pitches, when you’re on a 105-pitch limit, that 10 or 11 pitches is 10% of what he was doing that day,” Russell explained. “If we ground out but move a baserunner 90 feet closer… when runs come at a premium in a lot of Junior Legion games, that’s a success.”
Pitching has been the squad’s primary engine. Anchored by Kaeden Himmerich, Caden Corey, Tate McNames and Kannon VanGilder, the rotation has consistently delivered solid outings.
“That’s one of our most valuable assets right now,” Russell said. “It doesn’t matter who I throw out there, I know reliably I’m going to be able to get two or three good innings out of them.”
Watertown demonstrated its trademark toughness during the three-game Super Regional matchup against Palace City.
After dropping Game 2 due to defensive mistakes, Russell noted how the team dealt with the setback.
“Unfortunately, that’s how baseball works,” Russell said. “You’re always going to have those miscues. But the biggest thing then was we have another game, we turned the page, and they came back ready to go in Game 3, and we responded in a big way.”
The Arrows earned a 16-3 victory in Game 3 to secure the series.
Post 17 now turns its attention to pool play at the state tournament, where it will compete in the Stripes pool against Renner Kings, Harrisburg Gold and Sioux Falls East. Winners and runners-up of the Stripes pool and the Stars pool—consisting of Rapid City Post 22, Rapid City 320, Brandon Valley Black and Brandon Valley Red—will advance to compete on championship Sunday.
“As long as we have a chip and a chair on Sunday, we’ll give ourselves a shot,” Russell said. “I really like our team for Sunday.”
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