Prep baseball: Vikings drop 7-4 heartbreaker

Published 12:01 am Friday, April 3, 2015

VIDALIA — The Buckeye High School Panthers capitalized on untimely miscues by Vidalia High School both on the base pads and in the field in a 7-3 win over the Vikings in eight innings Thursday afternoon in an LHSAA District 3-3A game.

“It was a good game, a tough one to have to give up, but I really don’t know – just got to come through,” Vidalia head coach Kale Davis said.

The Vikings had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Vikings had a couple of costly base-running errors that kept the game tied at 3-3 and forced the game to go into extra innings.

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Then Buckeye loaded the bases on Vidalia starting pitcher William Handjis in the top of the eighth inning, forcing Davis to make a pitching change.

“Jacob Wilson came in and they hit into a fielder’s choice and we had an error,” Davis said.

The Panthers ended up scoring four runs in their half of the eighth for a 7-3 lead.

As for what happened to his team in the final two innings, Davis said, “We had an opportunity to win it in the seventh. A bobble here and a misplay there, we’re just going to continue to work on.”

Buckeye jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning before Vidalia scored one run in the bottom of the first, second and third innings for a 3-2 lead. The Panthers tied the game in the top of the seventh.

Dakota Hunt went 2-for-3 and Alan Doyle had a double for the Vikings, who were out-hit by the Panthers nine to six.

Vidalia (11-3, 1-3) next plays at 6 p.m. Monday at Avoyelles.

Block 19, Northwood-Lena 6

LENA, La. — Brady Bean had himself quite the performance at the plate for the Block High School Bears in their 19-6 win over the Northwood-Lena Gators in six innings Thursday afternoon in an LHSAA District 3-1A game.

Bean smashed a home run and belted two doubles in going 3-for-4 to lead the Bears’ offense. Noah Odom went 2-for-3 and Trent Coldiron was 2-for-4.

Winning pitcher Taylor Perron-Krause pitched two innings and struck out three batters.

Block (6-10, 1-3) takes the field again next Monday at 4 p.m. when it hosts Montgomery. The Bears’ game at Epps that was scheduled for today has been cancelled.