Valley City State's Logan Gronberg hit a walkoff 3-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Vikings to an 8-5 win over Mayville State to open the North Star Athletic Association Tournament Thursday afternoon in Dickinson.
 
VCSU trailed 5-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning when Alyssa DePoorter smashed a solo home run to left-center field that sent the game into extra innings.
 
Relief pitcher Madison Hazelton held off the Comets in the top of the eighth inning and VCSU opened the extra inning at the top of the batting order. Ashlyn Diemert reached on an infield single and Maddy Zander reached on a fielder's choice to bring up the VCSU's home run leader Logan Gronberg. She smashed the second pitch over the right-centerfield fence to finish the game in dramatic fashion and advance the Vikings to the NSAA Winner's Bracket. VCSU is now 23-21 on the season while Mayville drops to 10-35. 
 
VCSU totaled 16 hits in the game, led by Gronberg who was 5-for-5 at the plate with a home run, five RBIs and one run scored. Kennadi Stone totaled three hits and two doubles for the Vikings while Avery Kuklinski added three hits, two runs and one RBI. Alyssa DePoorter added a home run and Makenzee Stone contributed a double for VCSU.
 
VCSU's Maddy Zander started in the circle and pitched 7 complete innings Thursday. She allowed five runs on four hits, walked three and struck out seven. Hazelton earned the win after pitching 1 shutout inning in relief and allowing just one hit and striking out one.
 
Mayville's Lacey Mathiowetz got the loss after pitching 7 and 1/3 innings. She allowed seven runs on 16 hits, walked one and struck out three. Autumn McGough led the Comets with two hits and Madison Terres scored two runs for Mayville.
 
UP NEXT: No. 4 VCSU takes on No. 1 Jamestown in the NSAA winner's bracket Friday at 1 p.m. CT in Dickinson.