By: Kasey Salamie
Southland Vikings contributor
Joliet— It was a tough game for the Southland Vikings (11-17) on Monday evening against the Will County CrackerJacks (18-12). Both teams battled in this game that got cut short because of darkness at the end of the eighth inning.
The ‘Jacks were the first to score when Brandon Truitt had bases clearing three-run double in the third. Truitt ended the day with a pair of hits and four RBI’s. Truitt is hitting .348 on the season.
The Vikings would push across one run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from Elliot Armstrong. Their big inning would be the fifth inning where they scored four runs to take a five to three lead.
In the fifth the scoring started when Kuris Duggan drew a bases loaded walk. Kevin Kaczmarski would get a RBI fielder’s choice to score Donrell Rush for the Vikings second run in the inning. The Vikings would then score two more runs in the inning because of a throwing error by the ‘Jacks.
The ‘Jacks would score and unearned run in the bottom of the fifth to make the score five to four Vikings.
In the top of the seventh the Vikings were able to manufacture a run using the speed of Kevin Kaczmarski and Elliot Armstrong. Kaczmarski would walk then steal second base. He advanced to third on a single from Elliot Armstrong. Then scored for the third time of the game when the ‘Jacks tried to throw out Elliot Armstrong. Armstrong was stealing second; Kaczmarski read the throw down to second from the catcher and scored. Armstrong was also safe on the play. That scoring play put the Vikings up six to four going into the bottom of the seventh.
In the bottom of the inning the ‘Jacks would score four times to take an eight to six lead. They were able to score on a mixture of walk and hits. Domenic Biagini had a big hit to tie the game for the ‘Jacks. Lendon Ehlmann had the game winning hit in the game that ended eight to six.
Viking’s starting pitcher Stanten Jones pitched a good enough ball game to get the win. Jones (2-1) gave up four runs but none of them were earned. He pitched six innings, giving up seven hits, striking out six CrackerJack hitters. Jones’ ERA is now 1.20 on the season and has thirty-four strikeouts in thirty innings.
“I didn’t have my best stuff today,” said Jones. “I was still able to battle out there because I had great control of my fastball. My curveball was also effective for most of the day. Unfortunately we could not get the win in this one.”
Viking’s manager Chris Cunningham was not particularly happy with the loss. “When you give good teams extra outs they will capitalize. This loss hurt because it did look like we were going to get the win. We’ll get back at it on Wednesday and look to get a win that we can build on,” said Cunningham.