The Vikings won a closely contested game against the Two Harbors Agates at home on Friday, April 9. With two outs in the first inning, senior first baseman Darryl Hansen hit a double to score Jacob Rude.
The Cook County baseball team started the season with impressive back-to-back wins over Polar League opponents Cromwell and Two Harbors this past week. On Thursday April 8, the Vikings traveled to Cromwell and tore up the Cardinals 27-1. In the match-up the next day at home against the Agates, the Vikings won in a closely contested 7-6 contest.
On the road against the Cardinals, senior centerfielder James Groth started the Vikings ‘season by scoring when his ground ball to short turned into two consecutive Cardinal fielding errors. Groth rounded the bases and the Vikings were instantly on the scoreboard. Senior catcher Drew Holmen followed with a homerun over the left-center field fence. The next three batters went down in order but the Vikings had a 2-0 lead.
Jacob Rude started on the mound for the Vikings and made quick work of the Cardinals in the bottom of the first with three straight outs.
Right fielder Daniel Ditmanson then got a one-out single in the second inning to start things offensively for the Vikings. After a second Viking out, senior third baseman Cody Anderson drove in a run, scoring Ditmanson. Anderson then scored on a Groth single and the Vikings now had a four run advantage, 4-0.
In the first home game of the season, the Vikings defeated the Mariners, 7-6. Senior Jacob Rude loses his cap on a catch!
Rude issued a walk in the second inning, but got a ground out and struck out two to keep the Cardinals off the board.
Cook County then exploded for 13 thirdinning runs as they took advantage of six walks, two hit batsmen and a few Cardinal fielding errors. Cook County now had a 17-0 lead.
While Rude pitched three solid innings for the Vikings, Coach Arleigh Jorgenson used Junior Dene Taylor in the final two innings of relief. Taylor looked good, allowing only one run and striking out two. The Vikings, meanwhile, would add 10 more runs in the final two innings to win 27-1.
After a long road trip, the Vikings went back to work on the diamond the next day at home against the Two Harbors Agates. The Agates’ leadoff hitter started the game by drawing a walk against senior pitcher James Groth. Following a strikeout, a hard hit RBI double scored the Agates’ leadoff batter. Groth then struck out two Agate hitters to end the inning. The Vikings were down early, 0-1.
Following two groundouts, Rude drew a walk in the bottom of the first inning. Senior first baseman Darryl Hansen then hit a double to score Rude with two outs. Freshman shortstop Colin Everson followed with a single that scored Hansen and gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead.
Groth gave up a one-out single, but then got the next two outs to keep the Agates from scoring in the second.
After a leadoff strikeout, second baseman Clay Gruber-Schulz hit a single to get on base. Anderson then followed with another single as the Vikings had runners on first and second with only one out. Groth followed with another single, but Gruber-Schulz was thrown out at the plate by the left-fielder. Holmen then delivered with an RBI single to give the Vikings a 3-1 advantage. Following a Holmen stolen base, Rude walked to load the bases with two outs. Hansen came through with a single, which drove in Groth and Holmen and extended the Vikings’ lead to 5-1 after two innings of play.
With runners on first and second with one out, an Agate single drove in a run. After a second walk was issued by Groth, a Viking fielding error allowed another Agate run to score. Groth kept his composure, however, striking out one and getting an inning-ending fly-out to right field to keep the Vikings on top, 5-3.
The Vikings were unable to score in the bottom half of the third inning. Two Harbors, however, started the top half of the fourth with back-to-back singles. A Cook County fielding error then led to two runs for the Agates before the Vikings regrouped and stopped the Agate rally. Thegame was now all tied up at 5-5.
Cook County couldn’t muster a run in the fourth inning after drawing two walks and having runners in scoring position. After two quick outs in the top of the fifth, the Agates scored a run after three consecutive singles gave them the 5-6 lead. Darryl Hansen then got a strikeout to end the inning in relief of Groth.
Trailing by one in the bottom of the fifth, Everson led off the inning with a walk. Ditmanson was then hit by a pitch. After a Viking strikeout, Gruber-Schulz came through with an RBI single, scoring Everson to tie the game at 6-6.
Darryl Hansen was sharp on the mound for the Vikings and got three straight Agate outs to keep the game tied at 6-6. Groth then led off the bottom of the sixth inning by reaching base on an Agate error. Following a Viking strikeout, Rude came through with an RBI single to give the Vikings a 7-6 lead.
Hansen shut down the Agates in the seventh inning to preserve the 7-6 victory. The last out of the game was a fly out to seventh grader Alex Murray. Groth finished the game with two hits in four at-bats while scoring two runs, including the game winner.
The Vikings are now 2-0 on the season. Cook County traveled to Carlton on Tuesday after this edition went to press. The Vikings next play at home this Friday against the Babbitt Knights. Look in next week’s edition for all the scores and highlights.
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