Wednesday 23rd July
Tangier Field, Portsmouth
The Vikings were back in action after a big week the Wednesday prior. Not only had we secured a solid 25-6 win over the Solent Seals, but our nearest rivals the Hurricanes succumbed to only their second defeat of the season on the diamond over to the Portsmouth Pirates.
This meant that the fate of the Division Two title is well and truly in our own hands. Two wins out of two from our remaining games will seal a first Solent League title for the Black and Orange.
The Southsea Sharks hosted us at Tangier Field after spending the previous 5 weeks without a league fixture. The freshness may have played a part as the Vikings were firing on both sides fo the ball sealing a 22-1 win.
The opening half-inning saw lead-off hitter Dawn Lee get on base and come home next up with an Andi Bambeck double. Jaimie Moutrey managed to get on base through an error, but aggressive baserunning saw him get home off a Tom Anderson single to plate three runs.
In response, the Sharks got runners on base and managed a single run home. But runners were left stranded with some neat and tidy fielding work. That turned out to be the only Sharks run of the game.
The second inning saw five runs scored on five hits, culminating in a three-run homer from Andi Bambeck who earned MVP honours for the game. Again, solid defence was the name of the game with an unorthodox assist off Doug Sutherland's knee/shin for the force-out at second.
Nine runs came across for the Vikings in the third inning to push the score to 17-1. Ten hits got us around the order including three, two-run doubles from shortstop Scott Summers, outfielder Doug Sutherland and for Andi Bambeck, scoring his sixth of eight RBIs on the day.
A scoreless fourth was followed by five in the fifth, with league-leading season MVP candidate Gabriela Dascalscu scoring her second and third RBIs of the game off a single. This pushed the score to 22-1 with the Sharks needing to reduce the lead to less than 15 in order to avoid the runs-ahead rule. The Vikings defence held, and the game concluded after 5.
With the Southsea Sharks fielding a handful of new and returning players, the teams played out the remaining innings to give experience to these new players and allowed people to play in different fielding positions.
This win also means the Hurricanes must win their three remaining games and hope the Vikings suffer defeat the Seals in our final game of the season on 13th August. The Hurricanes take on the Redbridge Raiders the week prior with all eyes on Wide Lane to see if the title will be decided there and then with a Raiders win.
