By Scott Nulph

KINDRED, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Valley City Royals capped off an impressive run at the N.D. Class A State East Region Baseball Tournament by beating the Fargo Astros 8-2 on Saturday to earn the team a spot in the state tournament beginning Friday in Jamestown.

Valley City, now 15-17 on the season, will play West No. 1 seed Jamestown in a first-round game at 7 p.m. on Friday at Jack Brown Stadium in Jamestown.

The seventh-seeded Royal beat the Fargo Jets 14-4 in a region play-in game on Wednesday before losing 4-1 to the West Fargo Aces on Thursday.

Needing two wins to make the state tournament, Post 60 topped Casselton 5-3 in 10 innings and then the Astros for a spot at state. Valley City then lost 8-7 to the West Fargo Vets and will be the No. 4 seed from the East at the state tournament.

In the win over Casselton, Ethan Miller had three hits from the leadoff spot while Devyn Thornton drove in two runs.

Adam Bitz drove in the tying run in the sixth inning with a groundout, with Thornton scoring the go-ahead runs in the 10th on a double to plate Joe Cummings and Isaiah Schuldheisz.

Braxton Jorissen pitched the last five innings to get the win, giving up three runs while striking out nine.

Saturday, in a state play-in game, Post 60 took the lead over the Fargo Astros with two runs in the second inning and never trailed. Leading 3-1. Leading 3-1 Valley City scored four times in the top of the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Mitch Taylor, Gavin Gerhardt and Bitz each had two hits for the Royals with Bitz driving in three runs and Taylor two.

Bitz went the distance on the mound, allowing just two runs on five hits and struck out seven.

In the third-place game, Valley City rallied from a 4-0 deficit, scoring four times in the second and three more in the fourth for a 7-4 lead. But West Fargo scored four times in the bottom of the sixth to pull out the win.

Jorissen drove in two runs for the Royals while Thornton finished