VIKINGS RUN OUT OF TIME AGAINST TOP SEEDED PERRY
By Matt Maher
STRUTHERS, OH – It was a battle of the pitchers on Wednesday night when LaBrae met up with Perry for their D3 District Finals matchup at Bob Cene Park. LaBrae started Landon Brunstetter and Perry countered with Jason Pentek and between these 2 only 1 run was given up.
The Vikings played visitors in this game and struggled from the first pitch to get anything past Pentek. The first 2 innings for LaBrae saw 6 batters come up and all 6 sit down without anyone reaching base. While Perry had better luck against Brunstetter, they still couldn’t get past him through the first 2 frames and so we sat scoreless until the 3rd inning.
LaBrae got their first base runner on board in the 3rd thanks to a 2-out walk from Christian Haught but Owen Boone couldn’t do anything with the runner and flew out to center. Perry started off their half of the inning with a walk that would come around to score 2 batters later thanks to an RBI single from Sam Tharp. Cade Henderson would strike out swinging in the following at bat and eventually the Vikings would end the inning with a pop out to 1st base.
Both pitchers stayed perfect through the next 2 innings but then came the 6th. Brunstetter would allow a leadoff single to left and then was taken off the mound and Owen Boone took over in relief. a second runner got on thanks to a fielding error and 2 batters later a double would bring in the next 2 runs. 2 batters after the 2-run RBI double, came a 1-run RBI double and after that another RBI double and finally a RBI single before Boone finally got out of it with a fly out to center field.
The Vikings gave the pirates a good game but in the end, the swashbuckling gents from Perry would sail away with a 6-0 victory over the MVAC leading Vikings. The season did not end the way LaBrae thought it would but this team still accomplished a great deal this year especially when it came to the MVAC where they dominated the conference and left no doubt that they were the best. Congratulations to both teams on making it to the district finals and good luck to Perry in the next round.
