Valley City, N.D. – Pitching and timely hitting lifted Valley City State over the University of Providence in a doubleheader sweep in softball at the VCSU Softball Complex. The Vikings won game one 4-2, then took the second game 5-1.
Valley City State is 24-23 overall and 14-12 in the Frontier Conference and stand alone in third place. Providence is 18-8 in the conference and 26-21 overall.
GAME 1: Valley City State 4, Providence 2
The Vikings scored twice in the bottom of the second inning to take the early lead.
Jenna Decker tripled in
Reagan Mieras who walked to lead off the inning. Later in the inning,
Avery Kuklinski drove in Decker with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 Vikings.
Another Kuklinski sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth made it 3-0. Then
Anna Kowalyk scored on an error to make it 4-0 Vikings.
Providence got a run back in the fifth on an RBI single by Tehneson Ehnes to make it 4-1.
An RBI ground out by Ehnes made it 4-2 Vikings in the top of the seventh and that was the final.
Jenna Decker was 1 for 3 with a triple, a run scored, and an RBI.
Pascale Kihn and
Madden Bogenreif were both 1 for 3.
Reagan Mieras scored a run, and
Avery Kuklinski had two sacrifice flies.
Grace Folkema had a strong outing in the circle to pick up the win. She allowed four hits and one earned run in 5.2 innings of work. She walked three and struck out six.
GAME 2: Valley City State 5, Providence 1
In game two, Madison Moultray led off the top of the second inning with a home run to give the Argos the early lead.
The Vikings came right back with three in the bottom of the second.
Kylee Banerd doubled in two runs to give VCSU the lead. Then came in on
Katelyn MacNeill's RBI single.
In the third,
Jenna Decker had another RBI triple and Banerd added an RBI single to give the Vikings a 5-1 lead.
Cooper Klaahsen did the rest in the circle. She allowed four hits and one run in seven innings. She walked two and struck out seven.
Banerd led the offense by going 2 for 3 with a double, a run scored, and three RBI.
Jenna Decker was 2 for 2 with a triple, two runs scored, and an RBI.
Reagan Mieras was 2 for 3 with a double and two runs scored.
Katelyn MacNeill was 1 for 2 with am RBI.
Kennadi Stone was 1 for 3.
UP NEXT: The two teams wrap up the weekend series and the regular season Saturday with another doubleheader. Game time set for noon for game one. Game two will follow at approximately 2pm.
