Baseball struggles to find success late in season

Amanda Ollerer

The baseball team had a rough start to their two doubleheaders against Ripon. In the first game the Vikings played, they struggled to keep the momentum going. Ripon had a one-run lead in the first inning, but sophomore Alex Brewer had a single in the top of the second to try to give the Vikings a shove in the right direction, which amounted to nothing.

Ripon came back in the third with three more runs. In the fourth inning Brewer had another single, but unfortunately the Vikings were unable to build off of it. Freshman Sam Kossow singled in the fifth inning, but again the Vikings were unable to build off of the momentum. Ripon scored two more runs in the sixth inning and four more in the ninth to give Ripon a 10-0 win over the Vikings.

It looked to be a solid start for the Vikings in the second game; they held Ripon to no hits in the first inning. But the Vikings couldn’t get a hit and they couldn’t stop Ripon from hitting and scoring after that inning. Ripon brought in 21 runs in seven innings to win 21-0.

After two games of not winning, the Vikings came out in game three ready to put up a fight. The first inning was calm for both sides, but in the second inning Ripon got a run and in the third they scored three more. The Vikings were not going to have a repeat of the first doubleheader, so in the fourth inning they came out swinging hard! Junior Eric Bohling singled, Brewer singled and Kossow doubled to bring home Bohling. The Vikings were finally on the board and they didn’t allow Ripon to score in the fourth.

The sixth inning was even better for the Vikings. Bohling singled again, and so did Brewer. Sophomore Phil Wisniewski doubled to bring home Bohling. Kossow had to sacrifice to bring home Brewer, and sophomore Tanner Debettencour sacrificed to bring home Wisniewski. The Vikings allowed Ripon to score two runs. No runs were scored in the seventh and eighth innings, and the score was 6-4 in favor of Ripon.

The Vikings let in four runs in the top of the ninth. But the bottom of the ninth looked promising for them when sophomore Davide Harris was walked and Brewer had yet another single. Wisniewski had another double to bring home Harris. Kossow had another sacrifice to bring in Brewer. Freshman Marc Linger singled to bring in Wisniewski. Freshman Luke Barthelmess and sophomore Mike Baldino both had singles but neither could bring home runs. The Vikings lost 10-7, but it was not without a hard fight.

After such a long weekend, the Vikings were wiped by game four. They couldn’t build off of their last game and lost 20-1. Their lone tally on the board came from Robert Rashid hitting a single in the sixth inning to bring sophomore Richie Foreman home.

When talking about the third game, sophomore pitcher John Revis explained, “The third game describes our season. Whenever we put ourselves in a position to be competitive, the breaks never go our way. It’s frustrating — but that’s baseball. There are always going to be the elements you can’t control.” The Vikings have two more doubleheaders against Carrol this weekend; let’s hope the breaks go their way and they finish with a win.