The Orcas Vikings won 20-4 on Tuesday, March 31 against Shoreline Christian.

The Vikings travelled to Shoreline last Tuesday and in between rain storms managed to hit the ground running and maintain their drive. Daniel Jantzen was the big hitter for the game. He had four hits and two doubles off of several strong line drives.

Coach Joe Duenn said, “The hits off of Jantzen’s bat were deep hits for him. Daniel also had five RBI and he made his pitching debut as well.”

Robbie Padbury started pitching for the Vikings and went five innings on the mound, followed by Jantzen, who threw more strikes than balls and maintained good poise on the mound. Padbury’s pitches were effective as well and he kept his pitch count down. He walked two players and had three strike outs. Padbury had two good hits and maintained his focus throughout the game.

“We went there with only 11 guys and every single one of them contributed, and got on base and did well at bat,” Duenn said.

“We turned a double play to get out of a bases loaded situation and it was a sweet play. Shoreline Christian knocked a ground ball to our pitcher, who threw it to our catcher, making the first out. The catcher then tossed it to the first baseman and that ended the inning. It was a really nice job all around. We scored nine runs in the seventh inning and ran the score up. As a team, we haven’t had an offensive outburst like that during this season so far, and we poured it on at the end.”

The Vikings also played La Conner on Saturday, March 28 at La Conner.

“That was a strange game,” Duenn said. “It was supposed to be a double header, but the rain was hampering everyone. We lost 13-3 to La Conner. The weather…all the rain and cold…was a factor. We did get out there and we managed to score three runs on La Conner in the first inning and then the weather pressed down. We lost our focus, but conversely, we get to play La Conner two more times, and I think we definitely will prevail in at least one of those games, if not both.”

One of the Orcas baseball games was rained out against Lummi. The game was supposed to be played on Thursday, April 2. It has been tentatively rescheduled for Monday, April 13.

The Orcas Viking baseball team also organized a hit-a-thon fundraiser for their ball club.

“I would like to thank all of the sponsors and fans who came out and supported us in that endeavor. We raised money for off-island games and for potential league game travel. A big thank you to everyone,” Duenn commented.