The 2025 South Dakota High School softball season is off and running. At least, it was until Mother Nature hit the pause button this week.
A handful of area schools opened play Saturday in an indoor kickoff tournament at the American State Bank Sports Complex in Sioux Center (Iowa), but a number of scheduled games for Monday and Tuesday (and potentially later this week) have been or will be wiped out by recent snowfall.
That includes the scheduled season opener Tuesday at Mitchell for Class AA Watertown and the Arrows' scheduled home opener against Yankon on Thursday.
Eventually, spring will take hold and the season will take off for the 15 area schools fielding teams this year including Class AA Watertown and Aberdeen Central; Class A Milbank, Sisseton and Sioux Valley; and Class B Arlington, Castlewood, Clark-Willow Lake, Deubrook Area, Deuel, Elkton-Lake Benton, Florence-Henry, Kingsbury County, Mobridge-Pollock and Redfield. Clark-Willow Lake, Deubrook Area and Kingsbury County are first-year teams and Mobridge-Pollock has moved down from Class A.
SoDak 16 state-qualifying games for all three classes are slated for Tuesday, May 27. Winners will advance to the state AA tourney June 5-7 at Augustana University's Bowden Field in Sioux Falls or the state Class A and B tourney June 5-7 at the Players Softball Complex in Aberdeen.
Here's four questions involving area softball teams that will be answered this spring.
Can Watertown make it back to state?
The Arrows improved from 7-8 in their initial season of S.D. High School Activities Association play in 2023 to 12-11 in 2024 that included a seventh-place finish in the state Class AA tournament.
All-Eastern South Dakota Conference standouts Jade Lund and Kinsley Van Gilder have graduated, but coach Kelli Brinka and assistants Katie Strande, Elena Hoffman and Sam Koehn do have some returning regulars to build around.
That group includes junior outfielder Lauryn Hirsch and senior first baseman Aleia Johnston, who received honorable-mention on the all-conference team. Hirsch batted .284 with a double, two triples, three homers and a team-leading 24 RBIs and Johnston .342 with four doubles, a homer, 21 runs scored and 17 RBIs.
Senior shortstop Kynslee Johnson, senior infielder Alayna Dettman, freshman catcher Emmy Berglund and sophomore pitcher Alexa Brown, who handled a majority of the team's pitching duties last spring.
