LJ baseball 6, Valhalla 5

Home-run hitter Zach Sehgal

before the game.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

La Jolla senior Nick Ferenczy stroked a two-out single into centerfield in the eighth inning, driving in late-sub Christophe Naviaux as the winning run in a 6-5 come-from-behind win at Valhalla High Thurs., March 23. The game was part of the annual Bill Dickens Tournament that the Vikings participate in.

The big blow that set up Ferenczy's winning hit in the top of the eighth was set up by a three-run homer that shortstop Zach Sehgal hit over the fence in straight-away left field the inning before to tie the game at 5. Sehgal had a one-two count. "(It was) right there, low and inside," said the 6'2" senior, of the pitch from the Norsemen's Cole Howard.

The Vikings had been rolling along on an afternoon that cleared up with a slight breeze behind starter Nick Hammel, who threw 51 pitches during his four innings and seemed to have Valhalla tamed through the first eight outs.

Coach Gary Frank's squad also felt good about touching up Norsemen starter Casey O'Sullivan, an SDSU commit, for a run in the opening frame on Dane Hansen's single bringing in Sehgal.

But then in the bottom of the third, O'Sullivan's younger brother, big Riley O'Sullivan, who hit a long homer off La Jolla last year, bombed his own three-run shot beyond the 361-foot sign in the bottom of the third, and suddenly Coach Gary Frank's squad was looking up from a 4-1 score.

The Vikings added a second run in the top of the fifth, Ferenczy again being the one to drive in sophomore Noah Brown, playing his first varsity game and getting a hit in his first at-bat back in the second.

In the decisive eighth, with the score tied 5-5, Blaise Gimber laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Naviaux to second after he reached base on a grounder bobbled by second baseman Cameron Zamudio. Christophe advanced to third on a passed ball called a strike by the plate umpire, and came home on Ferenczy's single.