southlandvikings.com

Chicago, Ill. – June 3, 2022 – There’s an old saying that goes: you win some and you lose some.

On Friday night, neither was the case for the Southland Vikings (3-4-1) as they tied with the Chicago American Giants (1-3-1) by the score of 8-8, after the game was called after the eighth inning due to darkness. 

The Vikings struggled out of the gates, falling in a 5-0 hole after two innings of play, which featured a two-run home run to left-center field by Carter. 

Needing a response in the top of the third inning, the Viking offense answered the call. The team sent 10 batters to the plate in their half of the inning, highlighted by an RBI single by Julio Treviño, a sacrifice fly by A.J. Taylor, and a run-scoring base on balls by pitcher Sean Moore. 

Despite a troubling first two innings on the hill for Moore, he settled in and kept the Vikings in the game. His final three innings of work featured shutout, two-hit baseball, completing his line with five innings pitched, five runs (all earned), seven hits, one strikeout, two walks, and a well-earned no-decision. 

Moore was relieved by Brett Smith who continued to lock it down on the mound. Smith pitched two innings of shutout baseball, allowing just two hits while not walking anyone, and racked up four strikeouts. 

But the highlight of the night for Smith came at the plate, not on the mound. After the Vikings tied the game in the top of the sixth inning on a Julio Treviño sacrifice fly, they were threatening to score again in the top of the seventh inning. With runners at the corners and no one out, Smith was forced to bat. With two strikes on him, Smith cracked a base hit to left field to knock in the go-ahead run at the time, completing the comeback for the Vikings. 

For the right-handed pitcher, it had been a while since he not only collected an RBI but picked up a bat in a game. 

“Probably junior year of high school,” Smith said. “I [would] hit B.P. messing around, but an actual at-bat was probably junior year in high school, which was four or five years ago.” 

The Vikings would tack on two more runs to go into the bottom of the eighth inning with an 8-5 lead. However, the Vikings were unable to hold on to the lead as the bottom of the Giants lineup came through and tied the game at eight, which would end up being the final inning of play. 

The Vikings will be back in action on Sunday, when they make their first-ever trip to Crown Point, Ind., to take on the red-hot Lake County Corn Dogs for their second meeting of the season. The game is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and will be aired on Facebook Live and the Vikings Radio Network.