Vikings get win over Red Hawks
HOLTVILLE — The 66th Annual Lions Invitational Baseball Tournament officially began on Monday afternoon with seven of eight local schools participating in the famed San Diego-area tournament.
This year, the Lions Tourney has a total of eight divisions that each includes 16 teams.
Competing in the Division 1A bracket are Holtville High and Calipatria High, who faced off on Monday, with the Vikings recording a 2-1 win.
On Tuesday, the Vikings faced another familiar opponent in Mt. Empire and celebrated a 9-4 at Birger Field here.
“Anytime you can start out the Lions Tournament with two wins it’s a good thing,” said Holtville head coach Corey Moreno. “We did start a little flat (on Tuesday), but we worked to get the energy back up and get the ‘W.’”
The Vikings had runs cross home plate in each of the first three innings, giving themselves a 4-0 cushion to open the fourth inning.
Holding the Red Hawks scoreless through four innings of work was sophomore Dylan Cartee, who went on to earn the win throwing five innings, while earning three strikeouts and giving up just one earned run.
Helping the Vikings offensively were a series of hard and well-placed hits that the visiting Red Hawks could not handle, allowing Holtville to keep runners on base and in scoring position.
While Mt. Empire worked to get two runs on the board in the top of the fifth, the Vikings took advantage of a Red Hawks pitching change and series of walks in the bottom of the sixth to jump to a 9-2 lead.
Helping keep Mt. Empire off the base path for most the game’s final two innings, was Viking left-hander Luke Hernandez, who earned the save and recorded five strikeouts.
Offensively for Holtville, Tavo Loya went 2-2 with a walk and three runs scored, Angel Higuera went 2-4 with one RBI and two stolen bases and Rafa Lopez went 1-2 with two runs scored and one walk.
With the win, the Vikings improve to 8-7 overall and extend their win-streak to three games.
“About three weeks ago they really came together as a team,” noted Moreno, who’s Vikings are also 3-2 in Imperial Valley League action.
Holtville returns to action at 3 p.m. today traveling to face Morse in its first out-of-town game for the Lions Tourney.
Moreno said he is hoping to see his players jump on Morse early and keep a high level of energy throughout the game later today.