southlandvikings.com

It took three games for Chuck Kidd to get his first hit of the season, but it came at the perfect time for the Southland Vikings in their 10-8 win over the Joliet Admirals on Sunday afternoon.

The left fielder got his first hit of the season in his third game of the season in his second at-bat of the day — he was hit by a pitch in his first time at the plate. Kidd singled in the top of the third to score two runs and give the Vikings (5-1-1) a 5-1 lead over the Admirals.

The outfielder hit a double but hit an RBI single that was part of a four-run inning at the top of the sixth that gave a 10-6 lead, one that the Vikings would not give up.

Kidd’s three hits and three RBIs each led the team, which has recently had little trouble scoring and providing little issues for Vikings pitching. Southland has had little trouble scoring for much of the first week of the season — four runs was the fewest amount of runs the Vikings have scored in a game this season.

But the game was far from perfect. Sunday was a workday for much of the Vikings pitching staff where six different pitchers threw for Southland. Starter Matt Sonntag threw three innings of five-hit ball, giving up one run. The damage came in the fifth inning when the Admirals scored five runs to tie the game at six.

Pitching has been inconsistent for the Vikings for much of the season as the Vikings coaching staff has tried to figure out the rotation to see when to put in what pitcher in a given situation.

For now, the offense is providing all type of firepower, but manager Kevin Franchetti knows that hitting can go into a funk, which is why the pitching staff will need to figure things out sooner rather than later for the tied-for-first Vikings.