Adorjan Szakala delivered his most important innings to date in a Gibraltar/Washington Island uniform on Friday night as he closed the door on a nailbiting 8-7 victory over Mishicot.
Early on, it looked like there would be no drama with the Vikings scoring multiple runs in each of the first three innings to build up a 7-0 lead. The Vikings scored their first three runs in the opening inning courtesy of RBI hits from Aaron Brey and Luke Rericha and a passed ball. A wild pitch and a passed ball helped the Vikings score two runs in the second inning and an error helped them score two more in the third inning.
The Indians refused to go away as they scored the next seven runs to tie the game in the sixth inning, highlighted by two RBI hits from Quintyn Sand and one from Jax Vogel. After the Indians tied the game and still had the bases loaded, Szakala entered the game and struck out Brogan Wasurick to end the threat. The Vikings threatened to score in the seventh in, but Logan Rank performed his own Houdini act to get out of a bases loaded jame. Szakala executed a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh inning to force extra innings. In the top of the eighth inning, Brey's lead-off walk led to the final run when Hobbs Emerson beat out swinging bunt to allow the birthday boy to score. Szakala finished the job in the eighth inning, inducing a pair of groundouts before forcing a pop out to end the game,
Munao, Emerson, and Miles Richmond went 2-4 while Wyatt Bultman went 3-5 to lead the Vikings in hits in the game. Szakala picked up the win with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief, allowing no hits and striking out one. Munao started the game, pitching five strong innings as he allowed three runs (3 ER) on three hits while striking out five innings.
The Vikings will not play again until the open the WIAA Tournament at home on June 2nd against either Prentice or Three Lakes/Phelps at 4:30 p.m. Tim Kowols will have the call on 105.1 The GOAT beginning at 4:15 p.m.
