The Vikings defeated the surprising 40 Plus Hurricanes, 5-3, on Sunday to win back-to-back Raphael Jackson AA Baseball titles at the D.C. Canegata ballpark. Two of the Vikings hard-throwing young pitchers, Mark Knight and Malik Mitchel, combined to pitch their team to victory.
Mitchel, a Vikings import from St. Thomas, picked up the victory with a strong five-innings relief effort after Knight got into trouble in the fourth. It was the second time in two games that the champs had to call on the St. Thomian lefty to save the day. Trailing the best-of-five series 2 to 1 on Sunday, he picked up that series-tying victory and then came back on Wednesday to wrap up the series.
The Hurricanes’ starting pitcher, Aneuris Mercedes, also turned in a good pitching effort going seven strong innings in a game that went down to the wire.
After both teams failed to score in the first two innings, the Hurricanes drew first blood in the top of the third, plating an unearned run on a Vikings error for the early lead.
The Vikings would not answer until the bottom of the fourth when they picked up an unearned run on a pass ball to knot the game at one.
The Hurricanes retook the lead at 2-1 in the top of the fifth on a Carlos Morales RBI single and the score would stay that way until the bottom of the sixth, when the Vikings rallied for two runs on Mark Franklin’s RBI single and another Hurricanes error to take a 3-2 lead at the end of seven innings.
It was a lead that the Vikings thought, with their ace on the hill, was safe enough to bring the champagne coolers to the dugout in anticipation of the victory. The Hurricanes, however, were not done just yet as they rallied to tie the game at three in the top of the eighth inning on Anthony Cruz Jr.’s RBI groundout.
The Hurricanes defense, however, would let them down in the bottom of the eighth. The Vikings took full advantage of two costly errors that generated two runs for a two-run lead that they would not relinquish.
Mitchel set the Hurricanes down in order in the ninth, striking out two to pick up the win on the hill and preserve the victory. Mercedes got the loss for the hurricanes.
Top batters for the Vikings were Mark Franklin (2 for 3 with one RBI) and Jamari White (1 for 1). For the Hurricanes Morales was 2 for 4 with one RBI, and Fernando Quezada, the Hurricanes’ best hitter in the playoffs, was 1 for 1 after sitting on the bench for seven innings.
