Valley City, N.D. - The Comets baseball team headed down to Valley City to battle the Vikings on a warm October day. Mayville State was unable to get much offense going against the Vikings starting pitcher, and dropped the game 5-2.

"It was a tough day at the plate for us today. We had about four opportunities that we just didn't come up with the situational hit we needed which ultimately would have led us to four more runs," said head coach Billy Tomblin. "I think the positive is that it does show the bats are coming around, they are just not there yet."

On the mound, Connor Cory struck out the side in the bottom of the first. A walk and hit batter proved costly in the bottom of the 2^nd as the Vikings scraped a runner across, making the score 1-0. Valley City scored another run in the 3^rd with three hits to expand their lead to 2-0

"Pitching was better than it has been in the past three games but it is still not where it is capable of being. we need to find ways to create more soft contact and pound the edges of the plate," added Tomblin.

The next scoring opportunity came in the fifth when the Vikings doubled in a runner with two outs. The Comets got on the board in the 7^th with a bomb, as Avery Kirkup smacked a ball over the left field fence, cutting the lead to 3-1.

Valley City responded with two more runs in the bottom of the 7^th, using three hits and an error and the Comets went into the 8^th inning down 5-1. The Comets had two runners on when Zachary Evanochko hit a grounder to the Vikings second baseman, who mishandled it and allowed Joshua Majors to score from second. Unfortunately for the Comets, they were unable to get any other runs plated and the game ended at 5-2.

Ricky Marquez belted two hits for the Comets and Kirkup hit his first home run of the season. On the pitching side, Cory finished 5.0 innings with three earned runs and six strike outs.

Tomblin expressed, "The key with all of this is the guys remembering that this is not a time to panic or have knee jerk reactions - it is five games into a fifty game season. This is a marathon of a season; we need to stay focused on what we all agreed we wanted on day one, and that was a conference championship."

The Comets record is now 0-5. Mayville State will travel to Dickinson for their final fall bout of the season with a double header on October 4^th. First pitch is set for 2:00pm (CT).