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CITY  (NewsDakota.com)–Valley City Post 60 American Legion baseball picked up Section 1 play right where it left off a year ago in their opener last night.

After dropping their first game of the 2010 tournament, then rallying to win five straight games for the title, they rallied for four runs in the last inning for a 6-5 win over Fairmount-Hankinson in the first round last night in Valley City.

Wayne Engelhard delivered a two-RBI single to right on the game’s final at-bat, plating Tony Van Dyke for the tying run, then Anthony Olstad for the winner, who beat a play at the plate with a head-first slide.

The drama came against one of the best pitchers in the section in the form of Fairmount-Hankinson’s Alex Althoff, who had struck out 11 through six innings, and had survived a pair of runs that resulted from four errors. 

But Althoff was clearly struggling in the seventh, allowing a leadoff single to Derek Kohler, then walking Trevor Justesen, Van Dyke, and Olstad in order, scoring Kohler, and moving the tying runs into scoring position.

Fairmount-Hankinson head coach Alex Beach tried to will Althoff through the inning, stepping in front of the dugout several times, but choosing not to make a chancge.  After Chase Carpenter drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right, cutting the lead to one, Althoff issued his ninth walk of the game to Ben Sorensen, who reached in all four plate appearances he had.

It was then up to Engelhard, who hit the first offering he saw to right field.  Pat Veit, in right for Fairmount-Hankinson, made a diving try for the ball, and came up empty, but knocked the ball down.

Van Dyke scored the tying run easily, and Anthony Olstad, waiting to see if the ball would be caught with only one out in the inning, took a late turn around third and charged for the plate.

Veit rebounded quickly and delivered a great throw to Austin Kutzer, who was blocking the plate, but Olstad slid head-first and snuck his arms over the plate just before Kutzer’s tag to win the game.

The win pushes Post 60 to the quarterfinals today, where they face Wahpeton, who knocked off Great Bend 11-3 yesterday.  Wahpeton is the top seed in the tourney.

Enderlin 4, Lidgerwood 1

Tanner Groth took matters into his own hands for Enderlin as Post 221 took out of Lidgerwood 4-1 in the tournament’s opening game yesterday morning.

Groth scattered seven hits over seven innings, and struck out 12 while walking just two, allowing just one earned run.

Enderlin also took advantage of some Lidgerwood miscues.  Their first two runs came on a Thomas Lindgren double after Dylan Lerud reached on an error by second-baseman Brandon Wyum and Dillon Anderson found the bases on an error by shortstop Luis Vasquez.

The Lindgren double was, in reality, a miscue as well, as Lindgren hit a fly ball to right that could have been played by right-fielder Nick Wettstein.  However, Wettstein, Wyum, and center-fielder Jordan Grumbo all converged with no one choosing to make the play, and the ball fell safely.

Groth helped his own cause with a double that drove in two in the fourth, plating Gareth Hansen and Spencer Gillund, who had each led off the inning with singles.

Lidgerwood did themselves no favors on the bases either.  Vasquez was picked off in the first on an attempted steal, Wettstein was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single leading off the third, and Adam Weber was gunned down at second after plating Tyler Meyer for Lidgerwood’s only run with a single in the sixth.

Enderlin advances to face Kindred, who worked by Harwood 10-6 yesterday.  The game will be the nightcap at 6:00 p.m.  Valley City faces Wahpeton at 3:00 p.m., with both games on The Raven 103.1 FM.

Play begins at 9:00 a.m. with Great Bend and Fairmount-Hankinson, followed by Lidgerwood and Harwood at 12:00 p.m.