Hammond, Ind. – June 23, 2022 – When you walk hitters, you shouldn’t expect to win ball games.

That was a common message shared by the Vikings coaching staff earlier in the season and it returned Thursday night, as the Southland Vikings (11-9-1) dropped their second consecutive game, this time to the Joliet Generals (9-11) by a score of 8-4.

While the first few innings had the makings of a great pitcher’s duel, it all turned in the top of the fourth inning. After three shutout innings from Viking starter Nick Noles, it was the bullpen’s turn to take the mound in the fourth and it was a struggle. Two pitchers combined to hand out six free passes as Joliet sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth, scoring five runs on just two hits.

Joliet would go on to add on three runs in the fifth to give Joliet an 8-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Vikings showed some signs of life in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, after A.J. Taylor reached via an error, he would come around to score on a Jason Krol RBI single. The single for Krol was his seventh hit and his third RBI of the week.

“I talked about earlier in the week just trying to hit the ball hard the other way,” Krol said. “I was just taking pitches that I can do some damage with the other way and they’ve just been falling for me.”

Southland would also scratch two runs across in the home half of the sixth with Zach McKenna and Jon Crowel both coming in to cross. McKenna came in to score via a wild pitch and then an RBI single from A.J. Taylor allowed Crowel to score, cutting the Viking deficit to four.

The Vikings did have multiple runners reach base in the seventh and final inning of play, however, they were unable to knock them in, leaving a man on second during the final out.

The Southland Vikings will be back in action on Friday night as they make their first trip of 2022 to Whiting, Indiana to take on the Northwest Indiana Oilmen at Oil City Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. and will be aired on the Oilmen Broadcasting Network.