The North Park Vikings dropped their second consecutive tight contest, 3-2, to St. Lawrence University at the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, FL. As was the case in the previous loss, the Vikings stranded the tying run on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning.
It was an exciting game from start to finish. Viking hurler Mike Giovenco dueled with Saints’ starter Chris Cook through five scoreless frames. In the sixth, the Saints broke through with an unearned run: North Park’s lone error of the game, a stolen base, and a single put St. Lawrence up 1-0. The Vikings tied the game in their half of the sixth on three consecutive singles - the last two on bunts - by Mike Domenick, Andy Athans, and Wade Yunker. Devin Melecio worked a walk to knot the score at 1-1. In the seventh, Giovenco gave up a leadoff single and a walk, and consecutive sacrifice bunts plated the go-ahead run. Two more walks and a single gave St. Lawrence a 3-1 advantage.
St. Lawrence threatened to break the game wide open in the ninth, but some clutch relief pitching kept the score close: After reliever Travis Boyer had loaded the bases with nobody out, Jake Hollinsaid came in and induced a grounder to second baseman Trevor Popp, who fired a strike to the plate for the first out, and Hollinsaid got the next batter to ground into a double play to end the threat.
In their last at-bats, Ryan Javech singled with two outs and scored on a long double by Domenick. Andy Athans made a bid to tie the game with a liner to center, but it was flagged down for the final out.
Giovenco (2-1) scattered five hits over seven innings, walking four and striking out four. The Viking batters managed a dozen hits off the Saints’ pitchers, but they stranded twelve. Javech and Athans each garnered three hits while Domenick had two.
North Park (5-2) looks to return to its winning ways on Friday against the Merchant Marine Academy. They return to Chicago for a on-conference home game against Dominican University on March 18th.
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