CASSELTON, N.D. — For the fourth time in their last five games, the Valley City Post 60 Royals erased an early deficit, rallying from a four-run hole to defeat the Minot Metros 10-7 in an elimination game Friday at the North Dakota Class A State Legion Baseball Tournament.

Minot jumped on Royals starter James Schwehr early, stringing together six hits from the first seven batters in the top of the first inning. Remington Anderson and Jace Price each delivered RBI singles, while Brady Vigested added a two-run double to give the Metros a 4-0 lead before Valley City came to the plate.

The Royals chipped away in the bottom of the second. Andrew Sykora doubled to put runners on second and third, and Valley City got on the board with a single by Adam Shanenko. Corbyn Powell’s two-out ground ball was misplayed, allowing two unearned runs to score and cutting the deficit to 4-3.

In the third, the Royals erupted for five runs. Sykora drove in Jack Samuelson to tie the game, and after a fielder’s choice by Shanenko put Valley City ahead, Powell delivered a bases-clearing double to right-center to make it 8-4.

Schwehr, despite surrendering 15 hits and seven runs, battled through all seven innings to earn the complete game win. Minot briefly pulled within one run in the fourth, but Valley City answered. A two-out single by Schwehr, a hit-by-pitch to Will Schwehr, and Shanenko’s third RBI of the day—helped by another Minot error on a grounder by Bryson Heck—put the Royals back in control, 10-7.

From there, Schwehr closed the door. He stranded runners in each of the final three innings, including inducing a game-ending popout from Anderson with a runner on in the seventh to preserve the win.

Valley City (22-4) advances to another elimination game on Saturday at Noon, where they’ll face the loser of Devils Lake and the Fargo Jets.

Broadcast Information:
Catch the game live on 1490 AM / 96.3 FM KOVC and stream online at NewsDakota.com.