It was the last home game for the Vikings and that meant they needed to finish out their homestead on a win. After taking a loss in a neutral site against the Panthers they were espcially looking to take that 3rd place spot in the league. The Vikings handed the starting nod to Anthony Mangano who struggled his last time out against the Panthers.
The Panthers started off the game with a run early in the first. Then in the bottom of the 2nd it was a big inning for the Vikings as Chris Webb displayed some power and blasted a triple scoring in one run and it was two singles by Jacob Gunn and Mike Lustina. It was a Vikings 3-1 lead going into the 3rd.
The Panthers would then answer back in the top of the 3rd scoring 3 runs and would continue to pile on until the top of the 5th leading 6-3. The Vikings who have been down plenty of times before answered back on 4 runs of their own thanks to some walks a single by Alijah Rainey and Chris Webb singled scoring two runs and extending the Vikings lead to 7-6.
Andrew Early came into the game for relief for the Vikings and really shut down the Panthers. He struggled his last time out but pitched great and shutout the Panthers to win the game at a score of 9-6.
Mangano earned the win against the Panthers and Early earned the save as he shut them out and struck out 2 along the way. The Vikings played a great game today and always answered back when they were down. Tallying up 11 hits and 5 walks it was specifically a great game for guys like Chris Webb and Mike Lustina. Webb went 2/4 with a triple and 3 RBIs and Lustina went 3/4 with a double and an RBI.
The Vikings look to sneak into the playoff spot by trying to take some games away from the Oilmen in a 3 game series starting Thursday at Oil City.