Hammond, Ind. – June 21, 2023 – For just the third time this season, the Southland Vikings played a clean game defensively as they rode a quality start from Jackson Lisle to a 9-1 win over the Griffith Generals on Wednesday at Dowling Park.

The Vikings and Generals entered the game with the second and third most errors committed in the Northern League, but the Vikings were able to prevent any miscues on Wednesday as they took advantage of six errors by the Generals.

Not only did the Vikings not commit an error, but they also padded their league leading double play total, turning two more on Wednesday to bring their season total to 15 double plays turned in 19 games.

On the mound, Jackson Lisle (1-0) kept the Generals off balance in his second start of the season as he tossed 6 2/3 innings of one run ball while allowing four hits and four walks with three strikeouts to pick up his first win.

“I’ve always been a person who always hits his spots,” Lisle said after the win. “I’ve never been that type of kid that just goes out there and throws 90 and throws high velocity, so I’ve always worked on consistently hitting my spots and I think that’s helped my game.”

On offense, the Vikings scored one run in three of the first four innings before breaking the game open with a five run fifth. Unlike their big inning on Monday against the Oilmen when the Vikings capitalized on walks and hit batsmen, Wednesday’s fifth inning was about putting the ball in play as the Vikings scored with four singles, two errors and one walk to take an 8-0 lead at the time.

In all, the Vikings collected 14 hits, 13 of which were singles as they continually forced the Generals to make plays defensively.

“I’ve been preaching all year to keep the ball out of the air here [at Dowling Park], and to hit line drives and hard ground balls and today we did that,” manager Sullivan Stickann said of the Vikings’ offensive approach. “Lazy fly balls don’t put any pressure on the defense, but line drives, hard ground balls and moving guys over puts the pressure on them and we were able to take advantage of that pressure as they made a few errors that we took advantage of.”

The Vikings (9-10) will look to get back to .500 on Thursday when they host the Indiana Panthers (7-12) at Dowling Park. First pitch is at 5pm with Jorgie Vazquez expected to start for the Vikings.