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CITY  (NewsDakota.com)–Valley City managed just two his against Lidgerwood starter Luis Vasquez Tuesday night, but both made big impacts.

While Vasquez struck out 13 Post 60 hitters, his effort was undone by a two-out, two run home run by Jaden Keys in the first, and another two-out, two-run dinger from Josh Magnuson in the sixth, as Valley City grabbed a 4-2 win in the opening round of the Section 1 American Legion Tournament in Lidgerwood.

Keys made the two hits stand up, not allowing a hit till the fifth, and retiring the first 11 men he saw in the complete-game victory. 

Vasquez was nearly untouchable, striking out the side in the first and second, and sending down six in a row on strikes after Keys’ bomb in the first gave Valley City a 2-0 lead.

Lidgerwood rallied to tie late, with Vasquez scoring on Brandon Wyum’s two-out single in the fifth, and then Vasquez plating Jeff Illies in the sixth with another two-out hit.  Vasquez added a 2-3 night to his tough-luck loss on the mound.

After Post 60 lost the lead, Brett Stearns led off the home half of the sixth with a walk, then took second on a wild pitch. It looked as though the effort would be for not, as Chase Carpenter grounded out to third, and Keys struck out to follow.

But Magnuson unloaded on a belt-high fastball, a line drive to left to rebuild the two-run edge, the second hit of the night for Valley City.

A nifty defensive play would end the game.  Levi Jablonsky led off Lidgerwood’s seventh with a single, but Stearns would turn Wyum’s grounder to third into a 5-4-3 double play, and Keys then froze Kellen Jorgenson for his eighth strikeout for the win.

Valley City faces second-seed Kindred tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.  The game will be heard on Q101 KQDJ-FM.