Apr. 11—VALLEY CITY, N.D. — The University of Jamestown baseball team did enough to withstand a late Valley City State University rally and get a 5-4 win in the first game of a doubleheader on Friday, April 11, at the Vikings' Charlie Brown Memorial Field.
The Jimmies' Alex Alva opened the scoring in the first inning when he came home on an error to make it 1-0. The Jimmies added one more in the frame to go up 2-0. The visitors' biggest swing of the day came when Alva hit a two-run single in the second to push the lead out to 4-0 in the second before a sacrifice fly made it 5-0.
The Vikings comeback attempt started in the fourth inning when Alexis Velasco hit a solo home run to make it 5-1. The Vikings continued to crawl their way back into it with an error opening the door for the Vikings to load the bases and they were able to score three runs in the frame to bring it to within one run at 5-4.
The Jimmies' Ben Bohlmann came on in relief in the sixth and retired all four batters he faced in order. In total, Bohlman went 1.1 perfect innings while striking out two hitters. The Jimmies starter was Avery Liestman who went 5.2 giving up one earned run on seven hits while striking out six and walking one. The Vikings' Hunter Magnuson finished the day with a complete game giving up three earned runs on six hits while striking out five and walking four.
UJ 5, VCSU 4
UJ: 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 — 5 6 2
VCSU: 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 — 4 7 2
WP: Avery Liestman (6-3), LP: Hunter Magnuson (3-4), SV: Ben Bohlmann (3)
The Jimmies had a shutdown performance on the mound which helped them get a 4-1 win over the Vikings in the second game of the doubleheader.
The Jimmies' Luke Zimmer went 7.0 giving up one run on six hits while striking out a season high 10 hitters and walking one hitter. The Jimmies followed that up with a trio of Bohlmann, Ethan Petty and Joe Hart who pitched the last two innings giving up two hits, and striking out two hitters. The Vikings starter was Connor Martin who went 7.1 giving up two earned runs on six hits while striking out seven hitters and walking one. He was relieved by Jay Mendez who went 1.2 perfect innings while striking out one hitter.
The Jimmies (26-10, 7-3) continued to put pressure on the Vikings defense and it paid off when Triston Madison scored on an error in the second to give his team a 1-0 lead. The Jimmies added one more in the third to go up 2-0.
The score stayed that way until the sixth inning when Ryan Muizelaar hit a solo homer to push the lead out to 3-0. In the eighth, Muizelaar reached on an error allowing Chase Burke to score and the Jimmies lead to go out to 4-0. Muizelaar finished the game going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and one run.
The Vikings (15-24, 0-10) got one back in the bottom of the eighth when they had an RBI single to bring it closer at 4-1.
The two teams return to the field at 12 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, for another doubleheader.
UJ 4, VCSU 1
UJ: 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 — 4 6 0
VCSU: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1 8 3
WP: Luke Zimmer (5-3) , LP: Connor Martin (0-5), SV: Joe Hart (3)
