VALLEY CITY, ND  (Article Submitted by VC Cal Ripken Baseball)  In their inaugural season and first tournament, the Valley City 11U Cal Ripken baseball team would finish 4-0 to take first place in the AA division of the Fargo Invitational last weekend.

During pool play, Valley City defeated Fargo 61’s; 8-1, Royalton (MN) Royals; 9-3 and the Grand Forks Royals; 6-4.  They would go on to blank East Grand Forks (MN) 5–0 in the championship game.

Lead-off hitter Gray Kasowski would pace the offense, hitting 7-12 in the tournament for a .583 average, with four RBI, three stolen bases and three runs scored.

Garet Goven batted .500,  3-6, drawing three walks and scoring twice.  Beck Dietrich (4-10, four runs, five RBI), Lincoln Berg (2-5, six BB, five runs) and Riley Roelfsema (4-10, four RBI) would all bat .400 on the weekend.

Kayson Ziemba (.375, six RBI), Brody Kalbrener (.286, five RBI), Gavin Wiebe (.273, four runs), Kallen Hansen (two BB, two runs), Bentley Gast (one BB, one run) and Brody Metcalf (1-1) would provide the rest of the offense for Valley City.  They batted .366 as a team for the tournament.

On the mound, Goven would throw 7.2 innings, including all six innings of the championship game, giving up zero runs and striking out 18 in the tournament.  Goven would throw a gem in the championship game to no-hit EGF and strike out 14.  Hansen would eat up 6.1 innings on the mound allowing just 4 runs and striking out five.

Berg, Dietrich, Kalbrener and Kasowski would combine for six innings pitched, allowing four runs and striking out seven.

Valley City is coached by Josh Kasowski, Ross Berg, Jeremy Wiebe and TJ Hansen.