Four days after taking sole possession of first place in the Big 8 Conference, DVC’s baseball team lost at home to Sierra College 5-1.

The Vikings came in riding a three-game winning streak, while Sierra had just beat former conference leader Cosumnes River twice this past week, scoring a combined 29 runs in two games.

DVC and Sierra went into this game in first and fourth place respectively in the ultra-competitive Big 8 conference.

Sierra’s Logan Lotti had a big day, hitting his ninth and 10th home runs of the year and finishing the game two for five with three RBI’s and two runs.

The game was a pitchers’ duel early on, with both pitches seeming to breeze through the opponent’s lineup.

But the Vikings got into trouble in the fourth inning. After walking the first batter, starting pitcher Doug Murray gave up a two-run shot to Lotti.

But the inning didn’t end there.

After another walk and a stolen base, Sierra’s Sky Valenzuela laid down a sacrifice bunt, Murray fielded and tried to get the lead runner at third, but the throw was not in time.

Murray then hit the next batter with a pitch to load the bases, and after a sacrifice fly Sierra was on top 3-0. He managed to get out of the inning with only minimal damage after Sierra got called for runner’s interference.

That would be all the run support starting pitcher Jeremy Cole needed as he held DVC to one run in his eight innings of work.

The Vikings’ Murray pitched a strong game in a losing effort, allowing only three hits scattered throughout seven innings, though his control was a bit of a problem. He walked four batters and hit two more with pitches.

DVC’s lack of offense was its downfall, managing only one run off a solo home run by Travis Kruger in the bottom of the sixth.

“We came out and thought that they were a lot better,” Murray said after the game. “I mean they’re a good team, but we didn’t play well because we kind of put them up on that pedestal.”

The Vikings never got a strong start to an inning, managing to place their lead-off hitter on base only once, and that wasn’t until the bottom of the ninth.

The Vikings started the game off, strong, with Mike Gonzales getting a single, which was followed by singles from Travis Kruger and Adam Greenberg.

Gonzales tried to score on Greenberg’s single, but was subsequently thrown out at home.

The Vikings had only a couple scoring chances but couldn’t get the timely hits needed to bring in the runs.

In the fourth inning they had a man on first and second with two outs, but ended the inning with a ground out, and in the seventh inning Pete Lemone tripled with two outs, only to be left stranded at third.

This was the second match-up between the two teams, with Sierra outscoring the Vikings 16-6 in those two games.

The Vikings have a chance at redemption today when they travel to Rocklin to play Sierra again today.