by DAN DRAKE

Special to the Sounder

Golf

This week saw the Viking golfers playing Lopez and Grace Academy golfers.

Eight out of the 11 Viking golfers are first year participants.  Each match, golfers see improvements.  Golfers have found that the challenge of golf can change day to day. It seems there is always something to work on.  What is exciting to see are the smiling faces and new friends made at each match. This is truly a life game for these golfers.

Next week the League tournament takes place in Oak Harbor at the Gallery Golf Course. Roo Smith, William Coe and Mara Nutt will take on the course.  The goal is to have a great time and go on to Districts the following week.  All three golfers are very determined to qualify and play in Districts which lead on to the state tournament.

by MARTY ZIER

Sports contributor

Softball

The Viking’s softball team  (4-8) fought a close contest last Friday at windy Buck Park losing their second game of the season to the Darrington Loggers (7-6).

Viking bats struggled for most of the game but Orcas pitcher Bella Nigretto controlled the Logger batters as well until a couple late game fielding errors brought home four Darrington runs, giving the Loggers the edge 4-0 in the bottom of the  seventh inning.

The resilient Vikings battled back managing to score two runs with runners on base before popping out in a respectable come back effort. Orcas hitting, facing a stiff headwind, was a double by Bella Nigretto and singles by Bethany Hansen and Alicia Susol.

Orcas next plays LaConner and Adna.

Baseball

The Vikings fell victims to an 18-0 blowout against Friday Harbor towards the end of April but ended the month recovering with two wins against Shoreline Christian, 16-0 and 7-2.

Commenting on the Friday Harbor game, head coach Jim Passer said “No Highlights” but added that the team played much better against Shoreline;

“We played good, better defense, they were solid games. Both Pasha Bullock and Miles Harlow pitched and threw really well. We hit okay but their pitching wasn’t great, they walked us a lot.”

Opening May, the Vikings lost a rain shortened game to LaConner 6-1 and a close game against Darrington 8-5.

Against LaConner, Passer said  “We did not hit well against the Braves, we struck out 12 times and we gave them some runs and made mistakes where we can’t, but the rain eliminated any chance of a comeback.”

The Darrington lost ended the Vikings regular season, but Orcas fought the entire game.

“We were tied 1-1 until the end of the sixth” said Passer, until the Loggers scored seven runs in the seventh inning.”We fought back and had the bases loaded but pop flied out to end the game.”

Looking at the season, Passer wanted to thank assistant coaches James Segault, Danny McAndrew and Josh Mayson for all their help and said “We have a really young team and return everyone next season. We have no seniors and only had a couple juniors. We really enjoyed this group of kids and look forward to next year.”