Dustin Mertz<\/a> hit two home runs and had seven RBIs in game one Tuesday as the Valley City State baseball team split a conference doubleheader with Mayville State<\/p>\n Mertz hit a grand slam in the fifth inning and a two-run shot in the eighth inning of the opening game, powering the Vikings to a 10-1 victory. In game two, Mayville State scored five early runs en route to an 8-3 victory.<\/p>\n Valley City State is now 13-18 overall and 6-4 in the North Star Athletic Association. Mayville State, which entered the night with a share of the conference lead, is now 18-9 overall and 7-3 in conference play.<\/p>\n Up next: <\/strong>Valley City State hosts Bellevue University for a four-game series this weekend in Valley City. Saturday’s doubleheader starts at 1 p.m. and Sunday’s games begin at 12 p.m.<\/p>\n Suda started on the mound and went 5 2\/3 innings for the win, giving up four hits and a run. He walked five and struck out three. Veneman pitched the final 3 1\/3 innings to earn a save, allowing just one hit. He walked one and struck out two.<\/p>\n Mayville State pushed across its only run in the third inning to take a 1-0 lead. VCSU tied the game in the fourth inning when Jorun Hamre<\/a> scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Reynolds<\/a>. The Vikings then broke the game open in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n Gedeon Ellis<\/a> opened the inning with a single and later scored on David Demeter<\/a>‘s RBI double, giving the Vikings a 2-1 lead. With the bases loaded later in the inning, Mertz hit an opposite field grand slam off the scoreboard in right field, putting the Vikings ahead 6-1. VCSU tacked on two more runs in the sixth \u2013 including an RBI single by Hamre \u2013 and then Mertz capped the scoring with a two-run home run in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n After a monster week that earned him the NSAA Player of the Week award, Mertz continued to mash on Tuesday. He finished the game 3-for-5 with two home runs and seven RBIs. Both Gedeon Ellis<\/a> and Jayden Shipman<\/a> went 2-for-3. Hamre and Demeter each had a hit and an RBI, and Dalton Rambow<\/a> collected his first career hit on a pinch-hit appearance in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n Marcus Hughes and Jared McCorrister each had two hits to lead Mayville’s offense. Seven different Comets pitched in the game.<\/p>\n Mayville State 8, Valley City State 3<\/strong><\/u> The Vikings got two runs back in the second inning, cutting the deficit to 5-2, but could get no closer as Mayville scored insurance runs in each of the final three innings.<\/p>\n Calvin Watkins earned the win for Mayville, pitching four innings and allowed four hits and two runs. Parker Stohr pitched a scoreless fifth inning and Kenny Stewart worked the final two innings to close out the Comet victory.<\/p>\n VCSU used four pitchers in the game, including the first career appearances by freshmen Parker Vilandre<\/a> and Jace Hanson<\/a>. Starting pitcher Chase Feller<\/a> took the loss, giving up five runs in two innings.<\/p>\n Hamre and Mertz each had two hits to lead the Viking offense. Ellis and Reynolds each had a hit, and Reynolds drove in two runs.<\/p>\n Mayville State finished with nine hits in the game. Marcus Hughes was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs, and Skylar Forst went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Tyler Ferrera had two RBIs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tuesday VCSU Baseball Dustin Mertz hit two home runs and had seven RBIs in game one Tuesday as the Valley City State baseball team split a conference doubleheader with Mayville State Mertz hit a grand slam in the fifth inning and a two-run shot in the eighth inning of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":98366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222889,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222888\/revisions\/222889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"VCSU](\"http:\/\/www.vcsuvikings.com\/images\/2020-21\/4_6_Aanderud_WEB.jpg\")
VCSU 10, Mayville State 1<\/strong><\/u>
\nViking pitchers Matthew Suda<\/a> and Zach Veneman<\/a> combined to allow just five hits and one run in the opener, turning in strong pitching performances in VCSU’s 10-1 victory.<\/p>\n
\nThe Comets put together a five-run first inning as they took control early en route to a game two victory. RBI hits from Skylar Forst and Tyler Ferrera highlighted the inning for Mayville State.<\/p>\n