It was a beautiful, sunny Cinco de Mayo when the Vikings took the field against the Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs in Santa Rosa for the first round of regional playoffs. The ninth seed Vikings were looking to knock off an eighth seed Bear Cub team that beat them 11-2 in the last game of the regular season. The Vikings made sure to keep this game much closer than the last, but were not able to succeed, losing 4-3 in the tenth inning.
Coach Steve Ward wanted to keep Santa Rosa off balance by playing a bull pen game. “We split up our pitching, only allowing guys to go two innings at most,” said Ward. “It almost worked, too, if it were not for a few mistakes.”
The Viking’s starter Blake Bonde showed some nerves out of the gate allowing a lead-off walk to outfielder Siosi Poti to start the game. The walk would end up scoring, putting the Vikings in a 1-0 hole.
The rest of the game saw a conga-line of pitchers including Chris McConnell, Ben Brown, Corey Elliot, Cooper Johnson, Blake Fassler and Alex Palsha. The bull pen kept the game close, not allowing any runs until the eighth inning.
The lanky Bear Cub pitcher Bryan Webster threw a great game, only allowing two hits to the Vikings offense in the first five innings.
He only became human in the sixth inning when the Vikings knocked three straight singles. Outfielder Mike Mann brought home Ryan Atlas for the Vikings first run of the game on the last of the three singles. The rally would be sustained when Webster hit first baseman Devin Webster with a pitch. The Vikings could not capitalize on the bases loaded situation, however, and left the sixth with only one run.
Webster stayed in the game until the eighth inning when DVC started another rally. Chris Hard and Michael Mann got back to back one-out singles. Webster then hit slugger Aaron Hernandez with a pitch, which caused for Santa Rosa Head Coach Damon Neidlinger to make a pitching change.
The change seemed to go in Devin Alexander’s favor because he knocked in a run with a single, breaking the tie and giving the Vikings a 2-1 lead. Center fielder Matt Burks made it 3-1 with a sacrifice fly.
With the last out of the top of the eighth, the Vikings ran into the dugout with a sense of confidence. The game felt within their grasp, but a two run lead would not be enough.
Corey Elliot started off the bottom of the eighth by hitting two batters on two consecutive pitches. Cooper Johnson replaced him and allowed a sacrifice fly that moved the runners to second and third. Ward switched to ace Blake Fassler to try and get out of the one out jam, but Bear Cub Patrick Moniz tied the game with a two RBI single.
With the game now tied, the momentum switched back to the Bear Cubs. The Vikings didn’t give up, however, putting together a memorable ninth inning.
Vikings second base man Eddie Aguayo started off the ninth with a single and was sacrificed over to second by catcher Ryan Atlas. With two outs, Michael Mann came to the plate and came through with a clutch single to right field. In the ninth inning and the game on the line, Aguayo was given the green light, rounding third and charging the plate.
Bear Cub Ryan Xepoleas has a great arm and he showed it, throwing out Aguayo with a strike from right field.
“Both teams played hard today,” said Coach Ward. “and were pretty evenly matched. If you like close games, watch Big 8 baseball.”
The bottom of the ninth saw a valiant defensive play that kept DVC in the game for extra innings. With Xepoleas on first, the Bear Cubs put down a bunt to advance the runner. Third baseman Joe Love crashed the plate, but could not get the ball to first on time for the out. Xepoleas got greedy and tried to stretch his advancement to third base, but catcher Ryan Atlas rotated to third and was there to make the tag.
“It’s one of those plays that we practice every day, but only happens maybe once in your career,” said Atlas. “It’s just second nature, I was running over to third without even thinking about it. I guess that’s why we practice, so we’re always ready for crazy plays like that.”
For a moment it seemed like a new life had been breathed into the Vikings, but they couldn’t sustain it. DVC went down in order in the tenth and then gave up the gaming winning RBI single to the pinch hitting Anthony Sequeira.
The Viking’s ace Nick Pasquale will be the starter in Saturday’s game. In the best of three series, DVC needs to get the win to extend to a second game in a double header. Coach Ward is confident they can still win.
“We lost a game earlier this year when we were up by two in the ninth and made some mental mistakes. It was a similar game as this and we came back to win the next one,” said Ward. “You gotta have a short memory in this game and you gotta believe you can win.”
