The Vikings (24-16, 15-6 MCC) baseball team got back to conference action on Wednesday afternoon, defeating Saint Ambrose University (14-25, 8-12 MCC) 7-3 in nine innings. With the victory Grand View has pulled into a tie for the top spot of the Midwest Collegiate Conference standings with Viterbo University.
Grand View scored early against the Bees, plating the first run of the afternoon in the bottom of the first inning. The Vikings have scored early all season with Wednesday afternoon being no exception. Lead-off hitter Cory Burnes reached on a walk to get the inning started and Matt Dunn drove him in on a sacrifice fly to right field.
Grand View's starting pitcher, Kyle Peterson, held the Bees at bay in the first three innings of the game. While Peterson was holding Saint Ambrose scoreless, giving up only two hits, the Vikings offense exploded for three more runs.
The three-run third inning started with a Burnes double to left field. Burnes was drove home on a Chris Cutler sacrifice fly to center field. With two outs in the inning Dunn reached on an error, Curtis Quijano singled to left field and Brady Wathen reached on an error to load the bases for Jeff Brooks. Brooks drove home two runs with a single to center field to push the score to 4-0.
Saint Ambrose answered with a run of their own in the top of the fourth inning on a pass ball that scored Riley Jenkins. Neither team was able to score again until the Vikings put three more runs on the board in the bottom of the seventh inning. Cutler started the seventh inning with a triple, scoring on a pass ball. Quijano and Wathen kept their hot hitting going as they both had seventh inning RBI doubles to put the score at 7-1. The Vikings gave up two runs in the top half of the eighth to put the score at 7-3.
The Midwest College Conference leading Vikings will be in action on May 1st and 2nd for a three-game series against Viterbo University. The Vikings and V-Hawks share the top spot in the conference; therefore the regular season conference crown will be decided at home this coming weekend.
