North Central used the long ball, cracking three home runs, to take the CCIW opener from North Park 13-5 at Holmgren Field on Saturday.
The Cardinals jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on the strength of a three-run homer by Matt Abraham and a pair of singles off Mike Giovenco (3-4). North Park answered with one in their half of the first on a double by Wade Yunker and a single by Mike Domenick that was bobbled by the left fielder, allowing Yunker to score. After a solo home run by North Central in the third, North Park tried to chip away at the Cardinals' lead with one in the fourth (a solo home run by Andy Athans) and one in the fifth (Yunker's ground out scored Mike Sommerfield, who had led off the inning with a double), but the would get no further than that. The Cardinals' Brennan Hagensee hit the second three-run homer of the game to give them an 8-3 advantage and added three more in the eighth against reliever Alex Silverthorne and two more in the ninth against Pat Richards. For their part, the Vikings scored single tallies in the seventh (on a Sommerfield single) and the eighth (on a solo homer by Ryan Javech).
Javech and Sommerfield each had 3-for-4 days while Staatz was the only other Viking with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-4.
The two CCIW foes square off in the second game of the doubleheader, which starts at 4.30 PM. |
