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The North Branch baseball team put up a score last week that’s extremely rare, even in the high school ranks.

The Vikings belted out 24 hits and walked five times en route to a 24-0 shutout victory in their Missisippi 8 Conference finale against Cambridge-Isanti on Wednesday, May 24.

The five inning affair had plenty of offensive stars, not surprisingly. Tanner Helin went four-for-four with three runs and two RBIs, Noah Thorsen, Andrew Orf and Lucas Goggin all had three hits each. Thorsen had two runs and two RBIs on two triples, Orf had three runs and two RBIs and Goggin had three runs and four RBIs.

That was just the tip of the iceberg for the Vikings, though. Carter Drill went two-for-three with two runs and three RBIs, Michael Christensen went one-for two with two runs and two RBIs, AJ Rosario had a hit, run, walk and two RBIs, Sam Robillard went tow-for-three with one run and two RBIs, Jacob Karnes, Loghan Croal, Micah Ragsdale, Bo Pederson and Austin Darwin also had hits while Jacob Robillard reached based on a walk and scored. 

In all, 13 Vikings’ had hits with six of them having multi-hit games. It was an absolute slugfest, and one the Bluejackets would prefer toforget as soon as possible.

North Branch 12, Rush City 4

The Vikings didn’t quite hit the plateau of 24 again, but they got halfway there against Rush City on Thursday, May 25 and that was plenty to earn a win in their season finale.

Goggin continued his weeklong mash parade, going four-for-four with two doubles, two runs, one walk and three RBI. 

Thorsen went two-for-three with two runs, two walks and two stolen bases and Orf went two-for-five with two runs and two RBIs.

Ty Ellsworth his his first career homerun in his only at bat, and Carter Drill and Tanner Helin each had RBIs for the Vikings as they cruised to the 12-4 victory.

Section Preview

With the two huge wins to end the season, the Vikings got to 10-10 on the year and earned the third seed in Section 7AAA play. They took on sixth-seeded Hibbing on Tuesday and beat the Bluejackets. 5-3 They’ll take on second-seeded Grand Rapids on Thursday, June 1 at Grand Rapids. 

The two squads faced off just two weeks prior, with the Thunderhawks coming away with the 4-2 win at home.

Staying in the winners bracket is always key in section baseball play, but for a streaky team like the Vikings, it’s especially important this year. 

They can hang with any of the teams in the section, but they’ll need to be at their best to do it and not gassed from battling through a loser’s bracket.

They don’t need to average 18 runs per game like the did the last two, but if their offense can stay hot and they can ride Thorsen and Orf on the pitchers mound, the Vikings’ could definitely do damage in Section 7AAA this year.

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