Whiting, Ind. – June 10, 2023 – The Southland Vikings could not find a way to stop the hot hitting Northwest Indiana Oilmen on Saturday as they fell 9-1 at Oil City Stadium.
The Oilmen struck for three in the second inning and then continued to pour it on with another six runs combined across the five, sixth and seventh innings.
The Vikings scored their lone run in the third inning on a base running mishap that turned into a positive.
Jack Fitzharris and Matt Merk started the inning with back-to-back singles and then each moved up 90 feet on a sacrifice bunt by Colin Small. That put runners on second and third for Jimmy Gurgone, who lifted a fly ball to right field for the second out.
After the ball was caught, Fitzharris initially started to break toward the plate in an attempt to score from third on a sacrifice fly, but then changed course after seeing the throw back in and headed back to third. Meanwhile, Merk started toward third when Fitzharris started home, so the Vikings ended up with two runners heading toward third base. Merk, seeing Fitzharris back at third, started back toward second base which drew an errant throw from Oilmen catcher Emmanuel Scott allowing Fitzharris to score on the play.
That was all of the damage that the Vikings could manage against Oilmen starter Joey Turek, who went six innings while picking up the win and extending the Oilmen winning streak to six in a row.
“We have to execute more with good hitters and not leave the ball up,” Vikings manager Sullivan Stickann said after the loss. “We also need to get better in 0-2 and 1-2 counts. Pitcher’s counts. We were a bit too predictable and caught too much of the plate in those counts and good hitting teams take advantage of that.”
On a positive note for the Vikings, they saw the return of Charlie Dumo who had missed a couple of games with a hand injury.
“Felt good,” Dumo said of his hand after the game. “I wasn’t thinking about it. I was just out there doing my thing and it feels good to get back out there.”
Dumo collected two of the Vikings’ five hits, including a double in his first game back.
The Vikings (5-5) will look to get back above .500 on Sunday when they head back out to Elkhart County to take on the Miracle (4-6). First pitch is set for 1pm CT/2pm ET with Will Moell expected to make his third start of the season for the Vikings.
