The summer of 2026 will get underway this evening as Pierre Post 8 will open the season taking on Harrisburg Post 45, the defending senior legion state champions.
The Eights will look for a return trip to the state tournament where they lost both games on walk offs as Pierre returned for the first time since the 2022 season. River Iverson heads into his third season as the legion head coach of fourth season as part of the coaching staff for the senior legion. The Eights went 18-16 last season and will return Sutton Sonnenschein, Carter Schiefelbein, Hudson Stoeser and Porter Hunsley who played more than 15 games along with Will Danburg who was mainly used as a pitcher, Parker O’Bryan, Hudson Shaffer and Bridger Babcock who played some last year, but got plenty of time on the field during the high school season this past spring. Harrisburg, who won the state championship was very slow out of the gate last summer. Post 45 was 0-8 to start the year before finishing at 23-21 winning the state title and going 2-2 at the Central Plains Regional. This spring, the Tigers were the top overall seed in the playoffs but lost in the quarterfinals to eventual runner-up Watertown. Iverson says he expects Harrisburg to be a great team…
The Eights aren’t looking past any opponents, but this first part of the season will be tough with a lot of high quality South Dakota opponents with a trip to Brookings on Friday, then facing both Sioux Falls teams on back-to-back days next week and then hosting the high school baseball state champions, Brandon Valley. Iverson says it’s a gauntlet to start the year…
And the home schedule this year has more home dates on it compared to last year and then with a few games being canceled outside of Post 8’s control last season, Iverson says it’s going to be good to be at home more often this summer…
Coverage tonight begins at 4:45 with first pitch at 5:00 on KCCR and on YouTube at KCCR Sports with Jon Winkler and Blake Dean on the call.
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