SIOUX FALLS – The things that got the Redfield Muskrats into the State B High School Baseball Tournament were the same things that let them down during the tourney on Monday.

Normally a solid defensive squad, Redfield committed five errors to help open the door for Tea to roll to an 11-1 opening round victory.

“We just couldn’t get out of our own way,” said Redfield coach Tommy Gregg. “I don’t know if we were maybe a little flat.”

The Muskrats, who are usually aggressive on the base paths to help fuel a potent offense, never got going on offense, either.

Redfield’s first baserunner was picked off, and the Muskrats never were able to mount a serious threat on offense for most of the contest.

“We couldn’t catch a break and anything Tea needed go their way, they got that,” Gregg said. “You have to give them credit, too. Anytime we got guys on, they found their way out of it or their pitcher made good pitches to induce weak contact.”

The game began to shift in the top of the third inning when Tea plated four runs. While the Titans had three straight hits off Redfield pitcher Keaton Rohlfs to start the frame, they also put pressure on the Muskrats with their running game.

“I thought we gave them probably three extra outs. I still think at that point in the ball game Keaton was doing all he could. He was giving us a chance and defensively, we had some miscues,” Gregg said. “They kind of took advantage of some things that they saw. They ran on us a little bit and then we gave them extra opportunities and they cashed in on a couple of hits.”

Mason Schramm and Ethan Vis delivered RBI singles in that inning.

Tea added two more runs in the fourth on an run-producing triple by Logan Boom and a Redfield error, scored twice in the fifth on Boom’s two-run single, and then invoked the 10-run rule in the sixth with three more runs, two coming in on a single by Vis.

Meanwhile, the Muskrats could only muster one run during the contest, that coming in the fourth when Kevin Weller drove in Erik Salmen.

Redfield finished with six hits in six innings.

“That’s probably not going to get the job done,” Gregg said.

Boom finished with three hits and drove in three runs to lead Tea. Vis added two hits and also knocked in three.

The loss was just the second of the season for the Muskrats.

“We feel like we can play most days of the week better than what we did today,” Gregg said.

Still, Gregg was proud of the way players responded to the challenge this season after the squad lost key members from a year ago.

“Our senior class really stepped up for this year,” Gregg said. “Some guys that have played smaller roles on other teams in the past but are talented, really took a step this year. They’re a reason why we got down to Sioux Falls.”

Tea 004  223 – 11 8 0

Redfield 000 100 – 1 6 5

Nathan Babb and C. Turek; Keaton Rohlfs, Nolan Gall (4) and Elijah Morrissette. 2B – Tea, Turek. 3B – Tea, Logan Boom.