Nappanee, Ind. – June 30, 2023 – The Southland Vikings’ bats came alive in the final two innings on Friday night, but it proved to be too little, too late as the Vikings fell to the Elkhart County Miracle 9-8.
The Vikings struck first on an RBI single by Caleb Rhodes in the opening frame, but the Miracle stormed back with nine unanswered runs, including four in the bottom of the first inning on a grand slam by Bryce Lesher.
The Vikings trailed 9-1 entering the eighth inning where they finally broke through with a big inning.
They knocked Miracle starter Sam Russo out of the game after putting runners on first and second with one out in the eighth.
After the Vikings scored a run on a Miracle error, they loaded the bases with back-to-back walks to Will Hill and Jack Fitzharris with one out.
Another pitching change brought in Kaden Salazar who was first tasked with facing Michael Carrano.
“Based on [Salazar’s] warmups, I knew that he wasn’t going to beat me with any velocity,” Carrano said after the game of his approach going into his eighth inning at bat. “I just needed to see something up in the zone and sure enough, I saw the pitch that I wanted, and I put a good swing on it.”
A good swing indeed as Carrano blasted the team’s second grand slam of the week over the right field fence to bring the Vikings’ deficit to two.
The score remained 9-7 heading into the ninth inning where the Vikings would once again threaten the Miracle lead.
Colin Horneman singled with one out and moved to second on a two out single from Colin Small.
Will Hill followed with an RBI single to left field which scored Horneman, but Colin Small was cut down trying to advance to third on a nice cutoff by the Miracle to end the game.
“We were very shorthanded tonight and we hit very well at the end,” manager Sullivan Stickann said after the game. “We had a lot of hard-hit balls at people and left a lot of guys on base. We also had a lot of guys playing out of position on defense which cost us runs and that was the difference in the game just being shorthanded. Overall, I’m really happy with the way we played with the guys that we had there.”
The Vikings (13-14) will not have to wait long for a chance at revenge as they head back out to Elkhart County (12-15) on Saturday. First pitch is set for 5pm ct.
