VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Valley City Royals 27 runs and had 21 hits in nine innings of batting as they swept an East Region doubleheader from the Fargo Comets Wednesday night at Charlie Brown Field. The Royals won game one 16-2 and took game two 11-0. Both games ending in the fifth inning.
GAME 1: Valley City 16, Fargo Comets 2 F/5
Valley City used two big innings to route Fargo in game one. The Royals sent ten men to the plate in a five run second and 14 batters to the plate in the nine run fourth.
In the second, Grady Karges had a two run double. Corey Nelson drove in a when he reached on an error Tate Sufficool scored on the front end of a double steal with Caden Lloyd and Alex Thornton capped of the inning with an rbi single.
Mitchell Taylor started the scoring with an rbi single in the first and Avery Bennefeld drove in a run with a single in the third.
In the nine run fourth, Corey Nelson highlighted the inning with a three run double. Riley Gerhardt drove in Jacob Johnson with a single earlier in the inning and he capped the scoring with an rbi double later. Bennefeld, Taylor, Alex Thornton all drove in runs in the fourth.
Avery Bennefeld had three hits to lead the 12 hit attack. He scored three times and drove in two. Alex Thornton and Gerhardt had two hits each. Corey Nelson drove in four ad scored three times. Eight different Royals had at least on hit in the game.
Easton Hesch got the win going all five innings. He allowed six hits, two runs, one earned with five strike outs.
GAME 2: Valley City 11, Fargo Comets 0 F/5
The Royals scored three in the top of the first inning and never looked back in game two. Jacob Johnson scored Avery Bennefeld and Grady Karges with a triple in the first. Mitchel Taylor brought Johnson in with a sacrifice fly.
Taylor and Riley Gerhardt had rbi singles in the third and Bennefeld scored on an error. Taylor and Gerhardt added rbi singles again in the fourth. Two runs scored on errors by left fielder Brayden Dettling. One came in on a dropped fly ball and one scored when his throw back home on Taylor’s single sailed over the head of the catcher and to the backstop.
Bennefeld, Taylor, and Gerhardt had two hits each. Johnson, Tate Sufficool and Nelson had one each. Connor May tossed the five inning whitewash. He allowed three hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.
Valley City is now 11-3 overall and 9-0 in the East Region to take over sole possession if first place. Fargo falls to 4-14 overall and 0-6 in theEast.
This weekend Valley City will be hosting an invitational tournament with Grafton, Breckenridge, Minot Metros, West Fargo Vets, and Hatton-Northwood coming to town. Valley City plays Minot at 7:30 on Friday night and Hatton-Northwood at 7pm Saturday night in pool play. The tournament concludes on Sunday beginning at 10am. All of Valley City’s games can be heard on AM 1490/96.3 FM KOVC and newsdakota.com.