LJ baseball 4, Mission Bay 1

Vikings centerfielder Ryan Lancaster gets back

safely to first before Bucs first baseman

Declan Lynch's tag in the top of the second.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

"Let's still go out and win the league title," La Jolla coach Gary Frank told his troops just before they ran out to do pregame infield practice.

The adverb carried the prevailing tone in the dugout on Wed., May 26. Top player Gavin Graff was wearing a shiny new plaster cast on his right hand, and his exploits as pitcher and hitter were lost for the rest of the season.

The Vikings went out and handily won their second straight contest against Mission Bay in a three-game series, behind Owen McNally's firm left arm and some "small ball" bunting, hitting, and running that delivered key runs in the first three innings.

Lefthander Owen McNally had no

problems with a depleted Mission Bay

lineup in hurling a complete-game

victory Wed.

With second baseman Jake Klimkiewicz moving up to Graff's accustomed third slot in the lineup and Kaden Wheat DH-ing in Klim's familiar fourth position with the returning Spence Carswell playing shortstop, La Jolla got to Buc righthander Ethan Silber right off the bat.

Rightfielder Connor Hobbs led off the game with a sharply-hit single to left off Silber's slow stuff. Luke Roberts, the leftfielder, drove in Hobbs with another hard hit to the outfield to make the score 1-0. Roberts was thrown out at third trying to stretch his double into a triple.

In the top of the second, Vikings centerfielder Ryan Lancaster got aboard on a five-pitch walk. After he moved around to third, Simon Baker--playing first with Carswell at short--hit a foul ball down the right field line, driving in the speedy Lancaster with a sacrifice fly. The Vikings led, 2-0.

La Jolla doubled its lead in the third inning when Klimkiewicz doubled, narrowly avoiding second baseman Levi Retish's tag. Cole Duffy, the Vikings' catcher, followed with an RBI single to center to drive in Jake.

Finally, the next batter, Willy Barton, stroked another hard-hit ball to center, scoring Wheat. That closed out the Vikings' scoring for the game, which was enough as McNally only allowed two hits to a Mission Bay lineup depleted by Grad Nite for a complete-game victory. A coach for the Bucs said four of the team's eight seniors were away for the trip.