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CITY, N.D.(NewsDakota.com) The Valley City Babe Ruth baseball team punched their ticket to the District Six Championship game on Monday afternoon with a 3-0 victory over Ellendale.

Valley City opened the scoring in the second inning when Dawson Dietrich scored on a wild pitch. Just a few batters later, Garret Suhr would be hit by a pitch with bases loaded driving in another. Valley Would add one more run to the score board in the fifth inning.

On the mound, Nate Rodriguez was lights out for Valley City striking out an impressive 18 batters. He walked just one runner and allowed no hits in the complete game shutout.

Head Coach Lance Lukes said “This was a great game all around and what you want to see in tournament game to get you to a championship. Rodriguez threw awesome today, he was in control of almost everything he wanted to do out there on the mound. It’s nice to see your older guys step up in big games and produce like he did.”

The win advances Valley City to the today’s District Six Championship. They will play either Lisbon or Ellendale. The two teams started last night’s semifinal before storms suspended play. They will pick up the game today at 4pm with Lisbon leading Ellendale 7-3 in the top of the sixth. The winner of that game will play Valley shortly after the conclusion.

Valley City needs just one win to claim the District Championship. Lisbon or Ellendale would need to defeat Valley City twice to claim the title. The winner moves on to the State Tournament in New Rockford.