Hammond, Ind. – June 8, 2022 – The streak is over.
It has been one calendar week since the Southland Vikings (4-6-1) last won a baseball game, but that changed on Wednesday night at Dowling Park. The Vikings defeated the Lake County Corn Dogs (8-2) by a final score of 4-3 and they did it in comeback fashion.
The Vikings pitching staff had a much-improved outing on Wednesday, allowing three runs on seven hits, forcing Lake County to strand seven runners, five of them being in scoring position.
Nate Barbato got the ball for the Vikings and was effective during his time on the mound. In three innings pitched, Barbato did not allow a run with one strikeout while yielding one hit and two base on balls.
His success set the tone for the rest of the Viking pitching staff. The three arms out of the pen the Vikings turned to combined for six innings of work, allowing three runs, and six hits while picking up two strikeouts and only handing six free passes to first, a stark contrast to Tuesday night’s performance from the staff.
On the offensive side for the Vikings, it was a rather slow night at the plate but the bats came alive when needed.
After falling behind 2-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth, the Vikings looked to the top of their order to produce. Darrius Little got the rally going with a 2-out walk, and a few batters later, Chris McDevitt hit an RBI single to put the Vikings on the board.
The following inning, the bottom of the Viking order came through. Four of the first five batters who stepped up to the plate reached base, three of them coming across to score. The second of the three to come across was on a Darrius Little RBI single, which would give the Vikings the lead. The next batter, Blaze Cano hit a run-scoring single to bring in the Vikings' fourth run of the game.
“I think we came through it with some good collective hits,” Little said of the team’s seventh-inning rally. “Everybody came in and got hits. Then we had a couple of people just sitting back [on the ball] so it worked out for us.”
The RBI single by Cano would wound up being the difference in Wednesday night’s contest.
“I'm just looking for a pitch I like and something to drive,” Cano said. “I know it was a little infield single but it got the job done and we’re able to get the win today.”
The Vikings will try to use this momentum on Thursday as they welcome the Chicago American Giants to Dowling Park. The two teams will square off at 5 p.m. and will be available on Facebook Live and the Vikings Radio Network.
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