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After a satisfying victory over the Chisago Lakes Wildcats to end the Wildcats’ quest for an undefeated season in conference play, the North Branch Vikings ended their regular season on a down note by dropping four straight games. In spite of the losses, they look forward to the section tournament as a chance to end the season on a positive note.

Big Lake 8

North Branch 5

Six hits and four Viking errors led to seven runs for the Big Lake Hornets as they rolled to an 8-5 victory over the Vikings Friday, May 20 at Big Lake.

The Vikings got on the board in the top of the first inning without the benefit of a hit. Justin Novak was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a groundout. He scored on a dropped fly ball to put the Vikings up by one. The Hornets tied the score in the bottom of the first on two singles sandwiched around a stolen base. But the Vikings took back the lead in the top of the second as Ed Meier singled, went to third on a single by Jeff Olson and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Kaminski.

But then came the disastrous third inning. The Vikings only committed four errors for the game, but they all came in the third. Of the seven Hornet runs in the inning, only two of them were earned.

The Vikings tried to stay in the game. They scored one run in the fifth and added two more on a Marty Savage single in the sixth, but it was too little, too late as the Hornets hung on for an 8-5 victory.

“Our defense broke down for one inning,” said Viking head coach Larry Schlagel, “and we gave them seven runs. Of the eight runs given up by starting pitcher Dominic Stahley, only three were earned. He’s been unlucky – he’s been throwing the ball well enough to win, but we’ve been making too many errors behind him.

Milaca 2

North Branch 0

Matt Warren pitched an excellent game for the Vikings Monday, May 23 at Milaca, giving up only two unearned runs on three hits. Unfortunately, he was going up against the Wolves’ Ben Johnson, who held the Vikings to one hit while striking out 13 batters to lead the Wolves to a 2-0 victory over the Vikings.

A total of four Viking errors in the second and third innings led to the two Wolf runs. Marty Savage got the lone Viking hit in the first inning.

Johnson is one of the best pitchers in the section, and maybe the state. Schlagel was certainly impressed. “Johnson is a very good pitcher, said Schlagel. “He has a very good fastball and throws a hard breaking curve ball. He just overpowered a number of our hitters.”

Cambridge-Isanti 9

North Branch 1

This game was never close as the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets scored in four straight innings and came away with a 9-1 win over the Vikings on Tuesday, May 24 at Cambridge.

The Bluejackets scored three unearned runs in the second inning and added another on a bases-loaded walk in the third. A double plated two more Bluejackets in the fourth, and the Bluejackets capped off their scoring with three runs on four hits in the fifth. The Vikings spoiled the Bluejackets’ shutout bid in the fourth as Matt Warren singled, moved up to third on an error and scored on a single by Dominic Stahley.

Coach Larry Schlagel commented, “Dan Gray started for us today and he actually pitched all right. Our defense got him in trouble early, leading to the three unearned runs in the second. Also, Dan hasn’t pitched for some time and when he began to tire, Cambridge started hitting him.”

“Brian Schultz pitched very well for Cambridge,” continued Schlagel. “He held us to three hits and only one run. He mixed his pitches well. We were making contact, but not in a way where it did any damage. He did a nice job.”

St. Francis 7

North Branch 1

The Vikings closed out their regular season with a 7-1 loss to the St. Francis Fighting Saints Thursday, May 26 at North Branch.

The game was scoreless until the fifth inning. The Fighting Saints scored two runs in the fifth, four in the sixth and one in the seventh. The Vikings scored their lone run in the seventh inning. Dominick Stahley took the loss for the Vikings, as the Vikings used four pitchers to get some innings in before the start of section playoffs.

“We pitched four guys to get some innings in,” said Viking head coach Larry Schlagel.

Section Preview

The seventh-seeded Vikings were scheduled to play the second-seeded Duluth East Greyhounds at 10 a.m. at Duluth on Tuesday, May 31

“We wanted the game scheduled at 11 a.m. so we could make it back from Duluth in plenty of time for the seniors to take part in graduation ceremonies that night.” Said Viking head coach Larry Schlagel. “But Duluth wanted it at 10 a.m. because many of their senior players have finals later that day. So, needless to say, we’ll have to leave very early in the morning to get to the game.”

As his team got ready for the playoffs, Schlagel talked about his 2005 team. “Pitching was a major concern coming into the season,” he said. “We had minimal experience at the varsity level. But the pitching has improved steadily throughout the season. What’s really hurt us this year is having one bad inning on defense. In some games, for one inning we’ll make mistakes on basic routine plays – like booting easy grounders or making bad throws. We’ve been trying to instill in the players that they should come ready to play every night. The first time we played Foley, for example, we played a pretty clean game on defense and beat them 7-4. But when we played them a week-and-a-half later, for some reason we let down for an inning and lost 7-5. We need to be consistent.”

Schlagel talked about the Vikings subsection game or, hopefully, games. “We don’t know much about the Greyhounds yet, he said. “We plan to start sophomore J.J. Koerber against them. With J.J. on the mound, if we attack the ball at the plate and play some decent defense, we’ll come out ahead.”

The winner of the Vikings’ game against Duluth East plays the winner of Milaca and Cloquet for the right to go to the sections finals that start Monday, June 6.

If the Vikings make it that far, Schlagel knows the Vikings can play with either team. “We played well against Cloquet earlier this year, he said. “But we had one bad inning that cost us the game. And we faced Milaca and Ben Johnson just a week ago and lost, but held them to two unearned runs. Depending on Milaca’s strategy, we may or may not have to face Johnson again.”

If the Vikings do win their half of the Section 7AAA North Subsection, they’ll play in the double-elimination section championship finals starting June 6 at St. Francis and Nowthen.

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