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ROCKFORD (NewsDakota.com)  The 2014 Class B State Babe Ruth Tournament opened up yesterday at the Jim Johnson Memorial Baseball Field in New Rockford.  The tourney started with four games on Friday, the first game started at noon and the fourth and final game would end around 10:30pm Friday night under the lights.  The double elimination tourney will end on Tuesday, August 2nd with the championship game.  Most of the players are staying with host families from the New Rockford/Sheyenne area.  Here are the results:

Kindred 12  Beulah 4

Brock Benson drove in four runs and was 1-for-2 at the plate with a sacrifice and a hit by pitch to help his team defeat Beulah in the opening game of the State Tourney.  The Twisters would pull within one run in the top of the fourth inning by scoring four runs to make it 5-4, but the Vikings would score four runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth and that’s all they would need as the Twisters would not score in the last three innings of the game.  Benson was also the winning pitcher and the player of the game for Kindred.

Thompson 12  Carrington 7

The District Four Champs would overcome an early deficit and a tie to go on and defeat the District Two Champs.  Calen Schwabe was 4-for-5, with a double and two RBI, two runs scored and two stolen bases and would also pitch in relief for the Tommies who are now 27-6 with the victory.  Carrington suffers only their third loss and are now 21-3.  The two teams combined for 13 errors.

Park River 10  Burlington 0, 6 innings

For the first time since 1964, the Pirates of Park River play an opening day game at the State Babe Ruth Baseball Tourney.  Steven Thompson would pitch a two hit shutout, score the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning and earn the player of the game honors for Park River.  Adam Zavalney would hit Thompson in from third to win it.  Park River is now 24-5.  Noah Zietz and Jarrett Vendsel were the only two batters to get hits against Thompson.  

Valley City 7  Sheyenne/New Rockford 5

The host team would play the runner-ups from a year ago pretty close all game.  The Black sox would have the lead 5-4 going into the sixth inning, but Garret Suhr, Drew Oberlander and Dawson Dietrich would each knock in a run in the top of the sixth inning to take a 7-5 lead.  Starting pitcher Nate Rodriquez would only give up one hit in the last two innings to help the District Six Champs get the victory and improve to 33-7.  Rodriquez struck out 13 SNR batters and was the player of the game.  Seth Soderholm and Chance Brenno had two hits each for the Black sox.

SATURDAYS SCHEDULE:

12p – Beulah vs. Carrington (elimination game)

230p – Burlington vs. Sheyenne/New Rockford (elimination game)

5pm – Kindred vs. Thompson

730p – Park River vs. Valley City

All games can be heard on AM 1600 KDAK and newsdakota.com.  All Valley City games will be simulcast on AM 1490 KOVC.  Pregame will start about 10 minutes before each game.