April 13, 2006 at 8:24 a.m.
Viking bats come alive in conference opener
Viking bats come alive in conference opener
Senior captain Dominic Stahley was the opening day starter on the mound for North Branch. “Dominic earned opening day,” coach Steve Christensen said. “He works hard each and every day.”
Stahley scattered five hits and four walks through five innings and worked out of bases loaded trouble in the fourth, surrendering only one run. “Hermantown started to catch up to him in the fourth, but he came back out in the fifth and only needed to face four batters to get out of the inning,” the coach added.
Stahley gave way to another Viking captain, Dan Gray, who started the sixth inning fresh. After a single and a sacrifice by Hermantown to put another runner in scoring position, Gray walked one, struck one out and walked another to load the bases. “After the walk, Dan showed signs of arm trouble, so we had to take a look at it and not face any more damage.”
Junior right-hander Chris Becklin stepped in for the Vikings and quickly got ahead in the count before he retired Kyle Bolander on a groundball to Justin Novak.
In the bottom half of the sixth, the Vikings were ready to attack facing Hermantown right-hander Cody Chesney. Chesney retired Jeff Olson, who led off the inning. Senior captain Marty Savage drove his second hit of the game down the left field line, sending chalk in the air for a double. Stahley stepped up to the plate and was quickly down 1-2, but placed a groundball through the legs of the Hawks’ shortstop and into leftfield. Savage moved to third base and Stahley hustled to second after the leftfielder bobbled the ball.
With two runners in scoring position, sophomore Tony Dahlberg stepped to the plate. “Tony has been swinging really well lately and some good swings already today,” said the coach.
But Dahlberg went down swinging, bringing up Becklin with two outs. Becklin drove the ball to left field on the first pitch offered by Chesney and scored both Savage and Stahley for a Viking 2-1 lead. The Vikings weren’t done hitting just yet, as Mark Johnson came to the plate and singled as the courtesy runner for Becklin, D.J. Charley, moved from first to third. The inning ended as J.T. Lindholm struck out threestraight fastballs from Chesney.
“I think Chesney really wanted to get out of that inning. He reared back and threw harder to J.T. than anyone else,” Christensen continued.
The damage was done, however, and all North Branch needed to do was set down the Hawks in the seventh for the win.
Becklin took the mound again, trying to preserve his win and struck out Chesney. Becklin gave up a single, but struck out Ryan Hill for out number two. Hawks’ designated hitter Adam Perrault walked and a wild pitch put two players in scoring position for Hermantown.
With the count 2 balls and 1 strike, the Hwak batter lined a ball into right field, where perfectly positioned Viking right fielder, Alex Nelson grabbed the final out of the game.
“We had some base runners on early, in the first, but couldn’t plate them,” Christensen said. “But we came through the second time around. Solid defense and good pitching provided a key element for us today.”
Christensen added, “This was a good win to earn. They are in our section and these games add up for postseason play.”
Hermantown left 13 runners on base and Chesney struck out nine Viking batters in the loss. Ryan Hill provided the lone Hawk run, when he was driven in by Cory Larson in the fourth.
North Branch started its conference season at home against St. Francis Tuesday, April 11 and plays at home again April 13 versus Spring Lake Park. Both games were scheduled for 4:15 pm.
Coach Dave Hemmesch reported that North Branch won the B-Squad game 7-6 played at the new ball field at Sunrise River Elementary. Matt Bajor was 3-4, and Danny Ginal pitched the distance for the Vikings.
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