Nappanee, Ind. – July 8, 2023 – One bad inning was the difference on Saturday as the Southland Vikings fell to the Elkhart County Miracle 8-3 at Northwood Field of Dreams.

The Vikings opened the scoring with a pair of first inning runs after an RBI double from Caleb Rhodes and a Hobbs Dunne sacrifice fly.

Ty Chaney Jr. managed to strand runners on base in each of the first two innings and set the Miracle down in order in the third to keep the Vikings ahead 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth.

That is when the Miracle took advantage of a Vikings defense that was shorthanded and had multiple players out of their natural positions.

“It’s frustrating when you’re not at full strength because there is very little coaching that you can do,” manager Sullivan Stickann said after playing a starting outfield made up of three typical infielders. “There were a couple of 50-50 balls that just didn’t go our way because we were out of position.”

The Vikings committed three errors in the fourth inning as the Miracle scored six runs (two earned) on four hits to take a 6-2 lead.

That would be more than enough as the Vikings could only add one more run in the ninth inning against Miracle starter Ian Hernandez, who tossed all nine innings to pick up the win.

The Vikings (17-15) head to Highland on Sunday to take on the Indiana Panthers (13-18) at 2pm.