Viking bats bash Trojans in 14-5 slugfest

Dom De Feo rumbles home with one of WVC's five runs in the 7th
Dom De Feo rumbles home with one of WVC's five runs in the 7th

West Valley battered Skyline pitchers for 19 hits in a 14-5 win over the Trojans Wednesday in Saratoga. The Vikings sent nine batters to the plate in the third and seventh, scoring five runs in each inning, and then sent up eight more in a three-hit, three-run eighth.

The Vikings (10-6) banged out at least one hit in every inning but the fifth and needed them all to counter nine hits from the Trojans (8-7).

Dominic De Feo's second-inning single to right drove in Karter Wong to put the Vikings on the board. Skyline tied it at 1-1 in the top of the third to set the stage for the first Viking offensive explosion.

Alan Ramirez opened the third with a double to left and came home on Logan Stelling's double down the third base line. Wong reached on a walk and Dylan Unangst made it 3-0 with a double to left that knocked in Stelling. After De Feo was plunked, Kai Laxa's sacrifice fly to center brought home Wong. Ryan Lordier cleared the bases and made it 6-1 with a single to left that scored Unangst and De Feo.

Three straight hits in the fifth gave the Trojans another run, and Elijah Fairchild's three-run home run to deep right in the top of the seventh brought Skyline to within 6-5. West Valley countered with a five-run, five-hit blast of their own in the home half of the inning.

A De Feo rainmaking double off the top of the Blue Monster in left brought home Wong and Andrew Wilford, who had both reached on singles. De Feo and Lordier, who walked, both came home on a James Bose double to right that got under the glove of Trojan right fielder Ryan Choi. Bose crossed the plate on a Ramirez single that bounced off Fairchild at shortstop.

Not satisfied with their 11-5 lead, the Vikings put three insurance runs on the board in the bottom of the eighth. Walks to Wong and Gabriel Tapia, sandwiched around an Unangst single, loaded the bases for De Feo, who roped another double, his third of the game, down the third base line knocking in Wong and Unangst. Tapia closed out the scoring, coming home on a Ramirez single to left.

De Feo finished 3-for-4 with five RBI on a trio of doubles. Lordier and Ramirez each had three hits and two RBI, while Wong was 3-for-3 with four runs scored and Unangst was 3-for-5. Bose finished with two RBI and a triple.

WVC starter Colin Trizuto scattered six hits over five innings to get the win. Lincoln Juarez pitched a scoreless ninth to record the save.