VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – On a night when late father was honored, Jacob Johnson, in his first outing of the year, was in midseason form as Valley City took game one 10-0 in five innings. The Royals took game two 5-3.
Game 1 – Valley City 10,Wahpeton 0 F/5
Head Coach Chase Carpenter’s father Jeff, another longtime supporter of Valley City baseball, was also honored. Chase’s sister Cali and Jacob’s mother Jody and brother Jesse, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. All three threw strikes so Jacob Johnson felt he had to. And he did, 44 out of 61 pitches were strikes as Johnson tossed a 5-inning perfect game. Fifteen batters up and 15 batters down, 11 on strike outs.
The offense was in high gear as well. Eight of the nine batters had at least one hit. Lead by Johnson who had three, including an rbi triple in the first. Alex Thornton and Austyn Thornton had two hits each. Alex scored twice and drove in two. Austyn scored once and drove in one. Avery Benefeld, Mitchell Taylor, Easton Hesch, Riley Gerhardt and Grady Karges had the other hits. Karges drove in three, including two with a bases loaded double in the bottom of the fifth to end the game early.
Game 2 – Valley City 5, Wahpeton 3
Adam Bitz singled in the go ahead run in the bottom of the fourth inning and Alex Thornton added some insurance with an rbi single later in the inning.
Bitz had two of the Royals six hits. Cayden Lloyd, Tate Sufficool, Devyn Thornton, and Alex Thornton hd the other hits.
Corey Nelson started and went the first two innings givong up all three runs on three hits with four walks and four strike outs. Devyn Thornton pitched three shutout innings to get the win. He allowed one hit, one walk and had seven strike outs.
Valley City is now 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the East Region. Wahpeton falls to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the region. Valley City travels tp Fargo on Tuesday to take on the Astros. 5:30 first pitch. Coverage on 1490 AM/96.3 FM KOVC begins at 5:15.