Vikings preparing for playoffs

By Greg Price
Vauxhall Advance
gprice@tabertimes.com

The Vauxhall Vikings baseball team will be looking to battle next Thursday to start its league playoffs, even though they may be weakening in the arms race for supremacy.

The Vikings played Oyen on Tuesday as a lead up and won 13-2 where the Vikings did have to rally back at first before running away with the contest.

“I figured we’d be the stronger team. It was 1-0 for them after one and 2-1 after two. But then, every time they made a mistake after that we capitalized and put up multiple runs,” said Rob Virginillo, head coach of the Vauxhall Vikings baseball team. “We had some good pitching with both of their runs unearned.  They don’t have the up-and-down lineup like we have. They had a good pitcher, it wasn’t his fault. He got a lot of ground balls, but then there were the mistakes behind him.”

Unfortunately, in that game, another pitcher’s availability for playoffs was put into limbo with arm troubles.

“(Tuesday) night our pitcher was awesome, but in the third inning he came up with a sore arm, too. That is the third arm we have with issues and he plays Legion baseball too, so you wonder how much he is going to be used this weekend (for the Spurs),” said Virginillo. “That’s three arms we have on the mend right now and with them playing this weekend (in Legion), they aren’t going to get any rest. There will be little to no throwing in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and hopefully by Thursday they are good to go. It’s just the way it is. As far as attitude goes, guys are loose and confident and playing good. It’s just a matter of the bumps and bruises and getting healthy.”

The Vikings were scheduled to play Brooks yesterday, but with the rainy weather conditions around southern Alberta, the game was in doubt. The game was to determine first place in the division, but now looks like standings will be determined with games already played.

“From my calculations, we should be in first. We are 8-0 and they are 7-1 and we’ve played the same amount of games. There is not much else we can do. We have a better record. We should be playing each other, but we don’t have any make-up days left,” said Virginillo.

Vikings kick off its championship run on Thursday, May 25 at 11:30 a.m. at Jets Stadium.

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