After beating Elton 7-4 in its opening game of the VFW 16U State Baseball Tournament in Parkston on Friday, Scotland/Menno fell to Alexandria 6-2 in the semifinals and then dropped a nail-biter to Tyndall in the 3rd/4th-place game. The Trappers trailed Tyndall 5-2 going into the sixth inning but tied the game with three runs to ultimately forced extra innings. Tyndall ended up scoring in the bottom of the 10th to come away with a 6-5 win.

As expected, an active weather pattern has moved across the region, bringing with it storms and heavy rain starting Saturday and continuing into Sunday. Rainfall reports vary, but 2.30 inches was reported in Freeman as of Sunday morning, with closer to 2 inches toward Menno. Rain is expected to continue for much of Sunday with cooler temperatures expected this coming week.

Dylan Lehr is greeted by teammates after he and Peyton Wieseler (Expos jersey), a pickup player from Wynot, come around to score in the top of the ninth inning against Northville Friday night. It was the opening round of the 2023 State Amateur Baseball Tournament in Mitchell and the Mad Frogs used four runs in the final inning to pull away from the Merchants and win the first-round game 8-3. Menno will next face Lesterville Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the quarterfinal round of the single-elimination, 32-team tournament.

Kristi Hofer waters the plants that decorate the planter in front of her place of employment, First Interstate Bank, Friday morning. While rains have been timely this summer, a week without moisture has prompted the need for manual attention to plants, flowers and gardens. Additional rains and/or thunderstorms, however, are in the forecast through the weekend.

The Freeman Area Veteran's Memorial on Sixth Street is pictured on a beautiful Thursday morning. The memorial was built by a force of local veterans and was dedicated in the summer of 1999 — a dedication that featured an address by Gov. Bill Janklow.

The following was written by Amy Bennett Smolik, who lived in Freeman and worked as the news editor for the Courier in 1998-1999. Today she lives in Tea with her son and daughter and works at Lake Lorraine in Sioux Falls. She was a first-time guest at the July 29 South Dakota Chislic Festival, and these are her thoughts.   

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER As has been the case at each of the past five years, Kerry Kepplinger and his gang at Kepp’s Chislic served up mutton per tradition at Saturday’s annual South Dakota Chislic Festival. But the Scotland-based business also had a secondary option — chicken chislic, which featured a lower per-dozen price point than sheep. The reason for the chicken, Kepplinger said, is because he wanted to offer something that was more affordable to accommodate those concerned about spending. In other words, he wanted to accommodate everybody.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER In one of his first big moves as the new chief of police in Freeman, Jay Slevin is helping spearhead an effort that he hopes will lead to the establishment of a Freeman Neighborhood Watch program. Slevin, who was named chief of police last month and replaces Scott Brewer — who took a job with county law enforcement — met with the Freeman City Council about the idea at its July 18 meeting. He also recorded a short video explaining the idea that was shared on the city’s Facebook page on July 26 and drew favorable response.

  My goodness ... where to start? Because of a unique opportunity I was blessed to experience, I now know that we’re only a three-hour bus ride and an even shorter plane ride from Freeman to our nation’s capital. That’s a small amount of time to travel for an immense amount of history. And when you make the trip with an enthusiastic, engaging and friendly group from your community, it feels like an even shorter amount of time.

This shows the stage at the Freeman Prairie Arboretum Prairie Rose Amphitheater on the evening of the 2023 South Dakota Chislic Festival. This week's Courier includes coverage of the July 29 event, as well as news from the Freeman chief of police about his plans to start a Freeman Neighborhood Watch Program.