RAPID CITY - The Pierre Rattlers opened the South Dakota Class A amateur baseball tournament with a 6-1 win over the Rapid City Handcrafted A's on Friday night at McKeague Field.

Pierre scored four runs in the fourth inning to erase a 1-0 deficit and cruise to the win. Adam Karrels led off the third inning for the A's with a double and was knocked in from third base by Josh Nolan for Rapid City's only run of the night. Harry Decker went all nine innings for Pierre, scattering seven hits, striking out five and walking three.

"I wanted to come out and not give up too many walks, which I didn't do," Decker said. "But when I did walk somebody, or somebody got on, I managed to get some ground balls and my defense was backing me up. It's always nice when they're back there making plays."

Manager-catcher Tyson Lindekugel got things started for Pierre when he rapped a two-run single to drive in Pat Anderson and Mike Fisher before Brian Graves followed with a two-run home run to right field to make it 4-1.

The Rattlers were paced by Chris Pope's three hits, while Lindekugel added two more. Pierre tacked on another couple of runs on Rapid City starter Jason Herz in the fifth inning, when Mike Fisher singled home Pope and a fielder's choice by Decker knocked in Pat Anderson for the game's final run.

Decker held Rapid City to four hits in the final six innings of the game as the A's never really managed to threaten the visitors with much.

"The team kind of needed me to go all nine innings," Decker said. "So I wasn't really saving myself. I expected to go nine and did it."

Pierre will play the winner of the Brandon Valley-Renner Monarchs game today at 1:30 p.m. The A's will play the loser of that game at 11 a.m. Pierre plans on starting Allen Goodman on the mound.

Pierre hasn't played either Brandon or Renner this season, but Decker feels like they'll be able to hang with either team.

"We haven't seen either one yet, but we have played some teams that they've played," he said. "We did all right against them so we feel like we'll be able to compete with them."

The state tournament continues today with the early games at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. followed by a night session beginning at 5 p.m. The Renner Roadrunners will take on Vermillion at 5 p.m. followed by the Rapid City Angels and Brookings Cubbys at 7:30 p.m. All games are at McKeague Field. The tournament is double elimination, and concludes next weekend in Mitchell.