JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – It was a perfect day for baseball at Jack Brown Stadium in Jamestown. The sun was shining bright all afternoon into the early evening as the third day of the State A Legion Tournament saw three great games be played.
GAME 1
Valley City 10
West Fargo Vets 6
West Fargo broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning by scoring the game’s first 4 runs. With two on and one out, Vets second baseman James Hagen produced an RBI single. The next batter, Griffin Staahl would reach base with a single. With 2 on, the number three hitter Max Burkhart would drive in a pair with a single of his own. After Valley City would cut the lead to 4 to 2 by scoring 2 in the fifth, WF added 2 more runs to give themselves a 6 to 2 lead. That’s when things got turned upside down. In the top of the 6th inning the Royals would put up a 4 spot, thanks in big part to VC catcher Joe Cummings. The Royals catcher came up with the bases loaded and cleared the bases tying up the game with a double.
After the Vets stranded runners at second and third to end the home half of the 6th inning we were all tied at 6 going into the top of the 7th. Alex Thornton would lead off the inning with a single and Mitchell Taylor would get on by being hit by a pitch. The next two batters would walk to load up the bases as well as bring in the go ahead run. After a single by Adam Bitz to drive home another run, the Vets had a brain cramp in the field when Gavin Gerhardt who was running to third only to see teammate Max Mehus already occupying third base. Gerhardt had to go back to second and after the West Fargo catcher threw the ball to the fielder covering the second base bag, no tag was placed allowing Gerhardt to slide back in safely, which resulted in Mehus scampering from third to home to score another run for Valley City.
All in all the Royals would score another 4 runs in the top of the 7th. The Royals would get 4 and two thirds innings of relief from righty Braxton Jorissen to close out the game. The Royals win 10 to 6 and move on to play in the first game tomorrow at 3pm against the West Fargo Aces.
You can hear the call of that game on 103.1FM.
Josh Kolling took the loss, Tony Burkel came in as well and worked one and two-thirds innings. The one through four batters did most of the damage for the Jamestown Eagles, Mason Lunzman was 2-for-4 with two singles, Jackson Walters was 2-for-3 with a single, double and knocked in two, Jacoby Nold was 3-for-3, scored twice, two singles, a double and one RBI, Isaac Mimong had a double and an RBI.
The Eagles improve to 27-9 overall, the Caps end their season at 26-16.
West Fargo Aces 0
Wahpeton 3
The left fielder for Wahpeton waited for his pitch and finally got the one he liked and drove it over the deep fence in right center field for the 3-run home run to put his team in the lead. On the mound for Wahpeton was Ethan Manock. The tall right hander pitched an incredible game, doing a great job of using his overpowering fast ball and keeping hitters off balance with his breaking pitch. Manock up until the fifth inning had only allowed just two hits, he would only give up 6 total. The right hander would go the full 7 innings while striking out two on his way to the complete game shutout victory. Wahpeton is the lone undefeated team left in the double elimination tournament.
The stage is set for Monday, the fourth day of the tournament at Jack Brown Stadium in Jamestown. The first game will be at 3pm and will feature Valley City taking on the West Fargo Aces in a win or go home game as both teams have a loss already.
In the second, and final game of the day Wahpeton will take on the host team Jamestown at 6pm.