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Jimmy Skroch knew he would be counted on to be the ace this year for the North Branch baseball team, and on the biggest stage of the year, he pitched his tail off to get the Vikings a non-conference win over St. Paul Como Park.

The game was on such a big stage because it was played at the St. Paul Saints’ home stadium, CHS Field.
The senior righty had a perfect game into the fifth inning before walking a batter on a full count. He held on to a no-hitter until the first batter of the seventh inning reached.

The Vikings made life a bit easier for Skroch early. In fact, he even aided himself with an RBI double in the first inning. In the second inning, Nick Solberg reached on a n error an moved to second on a JT Hunziker single. Brady Brodin knocked Solberg home with an RBI base hit. He wasn’t done though, as he picked up another RBI in the fifth inning.

North Branch kept adding to their total in the sixth inning when Ryan Byrkit crushed a double and scored Caleb Stiles and Skroch.

On the mound, Skroch’s masterful performance ended with seven innings pitched, 12 strike outs and just one hit.

“We finally put it all together and had some clutch hitting, good defense, and Jimmy threw strikes and kept base runners off the bases,” Head Coach Steve Christensen said.

Brodin was the offensive star, going three-for-four with two RBIs. Hunziker went two-for-three with two runs and a walk. Skroch picked up two hits, and Fairbanks, Byrkit and Solberg all had one hit on the night. Kozar and Solberg picked up stolen bases, also.

“The whole night was a great atmosphere for baseball. We were lucky to have the opportunity to play at CHS, and St. Paul Como were wonderful in getting it organized,” Christensen said. “Our fans, past, present, future players, families, and friends really came out to cheer us on with this opportunity.”

Buffalo 11, North Branch 4
The fun night at CHS followed a tough game against Buffalo earlier in the week.

The Vikings were in the game until the sixth inning, when the floodgates opened and Buffalo scored eight runs to put the game out of reach.

After the Bison scored three runs in the third inning to go up 3-0, North Branch answered back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth inning. They got RBI hits from Byrkit, Kozar and Skroch, and just like that, they were back in the game.

But, as soon as they got back in it, Buffalo took them back out of it. They knocked in their eight runs in the top of the sixth inning, and it was just too much for North Branch.

They tallied one run in the bottom of the sixth, but it was all they could muster down seven runs.

Both Byrkit and Skroch collected three hits on the night, and both had an RBI and a run to go with it.

Josh Petrik started the game for North Branch and actually had a pretty good outing. He went four and one-third innings, scattering six hits and allowing three runs, but all three were unearned.  

The Vikings will host county rival Chisago Lakes on Thursday, May 5 at 4:30 before going on the road for back-to-back away contests against Zimmerman on Tuesday, May 10 at 4:30 and back over to Chisago Lakes for a rain make up on Wednesday, May 11.

With the new section alignment, the Wildcats look like they may be the team to beat, so this will be a nice litmus test for the Vikings to see where they stack up for a potential post season run.

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