Huge first inning paces Vikings over Comets

The Crescent Heights Vikings rode a monster first inning to a 14-4 victory on Wednesday at Athletic Park.

The Vikings sent 12 batters to the plate in the opening frame while bringing eight around to leave the Erle Rivers Comets in an insurmountable deficit before cruising to a lopsided sixinning victory.

“It’s really important to get on the sticks early against a team like that and then close it out from there,” said Vikings coach Brendon Lawes, adding his squad showed sound discipline at the dish with four walks in the first and 13 in the game. “We’ve got to have a high onbase percentage. That’s what we looked for when we were making the lineup... We have a lot of guys who are taking good pitches this year.”

Kaden Wagner kicked off the onslaught with an RBI double in his first at-bat, then he did it again with the bases loaded later to finish the first inning with 4 RBI while helping his squad to a 3-1 start on the Southern Alberta High School Baseball League Tier 2 season.

“Honestly it was just all about looking it in for me. I just get up there and I just try to be as calm as possible and look it in every time,” said Wagner. “Everything just felt great, it just felt like it was happening play after play. We were just taking it slow and keeping calm.”

Vikings starting arm Heyden Harrison found himself in a bit of trouble in the third — allowing a pair of unearned runs on a bloop single and a series of infield errors — but he bounced back with a clean fourth before leaving the game after walking in a run in the fifth.

Maxx Suhai took the hill in relief and managed to hold the Comets to one more run in the frame, then closed out the contest with a clean sixth.

“Our team is hitting well and pitching well so I think as a team we can keep doing this,” said Suhai, who had an RBI single in the first. “I want to congratulate Heyden on the great start and I want to congratulate Kaden Wagner on the 4 RBI night.”

Layton Neigum and Clarke Robinson added to Crescent Heights’ daunting lead when they both took home on a pair of wild pitches in the fourth, then Adam Klick and Harrison repeated the feat in the fifth. Klick struck again with an RBI error in the sixth, then came around to enforce the mercy rule on another ball in the dirt a few batters later.

“You’ve got to stay aggressive,” said Lawes. “We had a couple where we didn’t take advantage but for the most part our guys were pretty aggressive on the base paths.”

Harrison collected the victory after holding the Comets to four runs on two hits with eight strikeouts through 4 1/3 innings of work. Suhai closed out the game after holding Erle Rivers hitless with two strikeouts through 1 2/3 innings.

“We’re really happy with those two guys, we feel comfortable. We’ve got four or five pitchers we’re going to go to this year and those are two of them,” said Lawes. “Hayden has been good for us. He’s a Grade 10 so he’s still got two years after this and he’s a nice, big, strong lefty — and Suhai has worked a lot on his control.”

Comets starter Seth McCulloch took the loss after allowing eight runs — four earned — on six hits and seven walks through 2 2/3 innings.

The Vikings head to Milk River to take on the Comets (0-1) in a rematch on Monday at 5:30 p.m.