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St. Cloud Apollo 8, North Branch 3

North Branch's baseball team had already run into problems on their first day of the John Deyak Memorial Tournament in St. Cloud last weekend.

The Vikings had been scheduled to play three games, one on Friday night and two on Saturday, but a downpour paired with thunder and lightning scratched the first game of the tournament. High school rules don't allow teams to play three games in one day, either, so they just had to rid themselves of one of the three games.

The second problem of the tournament was the team of St. Cloud Apollo. The Eagles did their damage in bunches against the Vikings.

After starting pitcher Matt Becklin worked his way out of some tight jams in the first and second innings, the Eagles got to him in the third innings, racking up four runs. They chipped in four more runs in the fourth inning, and Becklin exited the game, making way for Christian Ehrnriter, who was making his first career varsity appearance for North Branch.

Ehrnriter pitched out of the jam nicely, and settled down the Apollo hitting. "Christian pitched well. He had a couple of walks, but he changed speeds and kept Apollo off balance," Head Coach Steve Christensen said.

After Ehrnriter entered the game, the Vikings came alive on offense too. Second baseman Joe Johnson scored in the fourth inning on an Apollo fielding error. In the fifth inning, Dan Schoess reached on a fielders choice, and came around to score on an RBI double by Drew Lundquist. In the sixth inning, Grote scored from third when Ehrnriter grounded into a double play.

Unfortunately, they were never able to string together more than one run, and Apollo cruised to the 8-3 victory.

Third basemen Sean Graff went 2-for-4, and Lutgen, Lundquist and Becklin were the only other Vikings to get hits.

Becklin got the loss on the day, going 3 2/3 innings while giving up seven hits, eight runs, with only four being earned, and striking out three Eagles. Ehrnriter finished the game, going 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit, three walks and four strikeouts.

North Branch 14, DeLaSalle 5

Jockeying for at least a split, the Vikings' bats came alive in the second game as they cruised to a big win over the DeLaSalle Islanders, who entered the game with an 11-7 record.

The first two innings went south for the Vikings quick. The Islanders plated three early runs off of starting pitcher Kyle Grote. North Branch started firing back in the third inning, though. With one out, Graff kept his hot streak going with a double. An error by the DeLaSalle second baseman allowed Schoess to reach, and Lutgen followed with an RBI single, plating Graff. A sacrifice moved both Lutgen and Schoess into scoring position at second and third base. Johnson cleared the bases of Vikings with a two RBI single to tie the game at 3-3.

The momentum the guys had created in the third inning carried over into the fourth. Grote led off the inning with a single.

Outfielder Erik Chouinard followed up with a bunt for a hit. Eric Berggren walked to load the bases. Graff hit a single that plated two Vikings, Schoess followed with an RBI double, and Johnson came through with another run-scoring single. In all, seven Vikings crossed home plate to extend their lead to 10-3.

In the fifth, Graff scorched a single, stole second base and scored on another Lutgen single. In the seventh inning, the Vikings capped their scoring with RBI singles off the bats of Johnson, Grote and Tyler Ball.

Grote went the distance for the Vikings, going all seven innings, giving up six hits and five runs. "Kyle worked really hard today," Christensen said. "He caught the whole first game and pitched the whole second game. He'll need get some much-needed rest."

As for his performance on the mound, though, Christensen was happy with what he saw. "[Grote] struggled a little with control, but he battled out of many situations," he said. "Very good defense helped Grote hold DeLaSalle to five runs."

On the offensive side of the game, Graff, Johnson and Lutgen all had stellar games. In the leadoff spot, Graff went 4-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs, Lutgen went 3-for-4 with one run and three RBIs from the three hole, and Johnson went 3-for-5 with one run and four RBIs from the fifth spot. Lundquist went 2-for-5 with three runs and two stolen bases on the day.

The Vikings travel over to Cambridge-Isanti tonight for their regular season finale. They'll play the Bluejackets under the lights at 7 p.m.

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