MITCHELL — There’s that baseball movie that famously claims there’s no crying in baseball.
Saturday at Cadwell Park was a worthwhile exception to that.
It was an emotional afternoon in honoring Winner/Colome’s late baseball players Chandler Bakley and Reed Harter before their Pheasants opened the state tournament, paying tribute to the men who died in a January car crash in western South Dakota.
Both were longtime players for the Pheasants amateur baseball team, frequently batting next to each other in the lineup and known for being fierce competitors and committed team players.
Following a moment of silence, the players’ wives, Mikayla Harter and Angie Bakley, threw out the Pheasants’ ceremonial first pitches prior to the game. The men were commended as “outstanding sons, husbands, uncles, mentors and friends, … and for being incredible at drinking Busch Light.”
In that light, the wives appropriately toasted the two baseballs before throwing their pitches, each of them caught by the players’ brothers, Zach Harter and Tyler Bakley.
From left, Mikayla Harter and Angie Bakley ‘toast’ their baseballs prior to ceremonial first pitches in tribute to their late husbands Reed Harter and Chandler Bakley during the Class B state amateur baseball tournament on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026 at Cadwell Park.
Landon Dierks / Mitchell Republic
It was a sentimental moment to close a difficult season for the Pheasants, who lost two men who personified all that is great about amateur baseball.
“It’s been a long year. It’s been a hard season,” Winner/Colome’s Austin Richey said, who serves as one of the team’s co-managers. “You can tell just statewide, they are people that everyone really loved. And for us, we’ve missed having them in our lineup. Bigger than that, they’re just guys that we miss having around.”
Teams throughout amateur baseball this season have honored the two late players, with decals on batting helmets and the players’ initials on hats. South Dakota Umpires Association umpires have worn caps that paid tribute to Harter, who umpired youth games in recent years, all season. Dozens of fans on hand for Saturday’s games wore shirts with various tributes to Bakley and Harter. Sunshine League players from all eight teams have shirts that feature all of the teams and are dedicated to the two players.
The Harter and Bakley families also participated in an on-field ceremony on Saturday in presenting the Chandler Bakley and Reed Harter ‘Heart of the Game’ memorial scholarship, which went to Winner/Colome amateur player and Dakota Wesleyan University player Landon Calhoon.
Winner/Colome’s game was the second contest of the day. The Hartford/Humboldt Gamecocks played in the first game, and Cam Quigley is a key player for the Gamecocks. Quigley was a passenger in the crash that killed Harter and Bakley. All three were past Dakota Wesleyan University baseball teammates.
From left, South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association district commissioner Galen Guthmiller presents Hartford/Humboldt Gamecocks player Cam Quigley with the Mark Mehlhaf Memorial Award as the state’s Comeback Player of the Year on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026 at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.
Landon Dierks / Mitchell Republic
Quigley suffered a serious hand injury that required reattaching a finger to his hand. He was honored Saturday as the state’s Comeback Player of the Year. He credited baseball as being a key motivator in his recovery, doing what he thinks his friends would have wanted him to do.
“Do everything for them,” Quigley told the crowd after accepting the award. “Keep showing up, keep playing, keep going hard. I’m a little choked up, but keep showing up for them because they’d want us to.”
Harter and Bakley were two of the best players that amateur baseball in the state has to offer, good men who played the game the right way, earning the respect of their teammates and their peers. Strong bonds are built in a sport like amateur baseball, where players frequently play against each other for many years and begin to know their opponents well both on and off the field.
“When I saw that we were playing in the first game and then Winner/Colome was going to be in the game after us, I thought that was a pretty fitting thing,” Gamecocks’ manager Chad Morrison said. “Reed and Chandler meant a lot to a lot of people here and around South Dakota.”
The game didn’t go Winner/Colome’s way, as the powerhouse Dell Rapids Mudcats emerged with an 11-3 win, advancing to the second round.
Winner/Colome’s Landon Calhoon accepts the Chandler Bakley and Reed Harter ‘Heart of the Game’ memorial scholarship from Winner/Colome teammate Zach Harter during the Class B state amateur baseball tournament on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026 at Cadwell Park.
Landon Dierks / Mitchell Republic
All season, Winner/Colome has honored both Harter and Bakley on the backs of their hats but also longtime manager Kevin Graesser, a dedicated amateur baseball player and manager for the Pheasants who died following a battle with cancer in 2021. The numbers 3, 15 and 27 are memorialized on their hats, and the logo says “Legends never die.”
“The lineup will always be different without the dynamic pair in it, but if you look hard enough, they are still here,” public address announcer Joe Van Goor read from the team’s dedication for the first pitch. “The Pheasants lost two of the greats, but (the team) likes to imagine it this way. Graesser on the mound, Chuck Bakley catching and Reed Harter at second base, waiting for the rest of the Pheasants to eventually join them on God’s greatest baseball field, so they can all play together again.”
Marcus Traxler is the assistant editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. A past winner of the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist award and the 2023 South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year, he’s worked for the newspaper since 2014 and covers a wide variety of topics. A Minnesota native, Traxler can be reached at mtraxler@mitchellrepublic.com.