Vikings win their tournament, boost winning streak to eight

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

The tournament trophy wasn?t going anywhere last Saturday, as the Viking baseball team knocked off Superior Central, 4-2, and Onaway, 8-6. They have now won eight straight with six straight home games on tap. The new Calcite Credit Union scoreboard, installed early last week at the Posen Baseball Field, is going to get a lot of use before the close of the 2010 regular season. Posen (14-9-1 overall, 9-3 league) hosts the North Star League season finales against Atlanta, welcomes Onaway again Tuesday and brings in Whittemore-Prescott a week from today. The district was Wednesday (past press time).

The new scoreboard only became operational 20 minutes before the first pitch of the tournament. It also took a while for Posen to get that very first run on the home side. SUPERIOR CENTRAL was leading 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth. Travis Hirschman had one of his two singles in the contest to spark a late rally. With two outs, Justin LaPointe went the other way with a pitch, deep into the left field corner for a double to put runners at second and third. Nathan Lenard walked ahead of a Shane Hentkowski?s two-RBI single up the middle to tie the game.

Scott Couture hit a ball that wasn?t handled, to get the game-winner home. The Vikings would add one more in the inning and shut down the Cougars in the top of the sixth. Hentkowski started and picked up his fourth win on the mound (3H, ER, 3W, 8 K?s). He is 4-3-1. Couture went to the mound against Onaway. The lead exchanged hands early and often. LaPointe, who led off the bottom of the third with a single, scored on a squeeze play to put Posen up 2-1. Onaway came back in the top of the fourth with a run to knot the score at two; however, there could have been a lot more damage.

The Cardinals had the bases loaded with one out. Couture got a key strikeout and the final out on a grounder to third. Patrick Schuch made the play and touched the bag. THE VIKINGS responded at the plate with their biggest inning of the day. Jerome Ciarkowski led off with a single, and with one out, Schuch doubled down the line. Brandon Dietz walked to load the bases, bringing up LaPointe. He drove in the first run of the inning when his pop-up dropped in.

With the bases still l

oaded, head coach Pat Kowalski went to his claim to fame. Lenard laid down a RBI-squeeze bunt, Hentkowski brought in a run with a walk, and then it was Couture?s turn to get the bunt down and get the run in from third. The sixth run of the inning came in when the Onaway left fielder dropped a fly ball by Ciarkowski. The Vikings had an 8-2 lead. Onaway came back with four runs to make things interesting, but after Kowalski brought Ciarkowski to the mound to make Posen better defensively, the game ended on a double play ball to Ciarkowski, who went to Couture at first. He then threw to third to get the final out.

Ciarkowski gets the save, while Couture improves to 3-3 (5 IN, 2 ER, W, 2 K?s). LaPointe was 2-for-3 (RBI), while Couture and Ciarkowski each collected two RBI. VIKING NOTES: – The high school squad went up against some of the alumni Tuesday, with the game ending in a 7-7 tie. Some of the pitchers included Jeff Purol, Matt Ciarkowski, Jesse Romel and game organizer Nick Idalski. There were no homers. – Hirschman scored the first ever Posen run on the new scoreboard.