Vikings win first area title since 2015 by sweeping No. 10 Ider
Story By Jason Bowen
The Skyline baseball team made a statement in its Class 1A Area 15 series with No. 10-ranked Ider last Tuesday by posting an 11-0 mercy-rule shortened victory.
With his team heading to Ider two days later for Game 2, and possibly Game 3, with the area championship on the line, Skyline head coach Kyle Wininger advised his team to start fast in Game 2.
The Vikings heeded their coach’s wish and then some.
Skyline struck for seven first-inning runs, added two more in the second and ultimately hit the 20-run mark in an area-championship clinching 20-6 over the No. 10 Hornets Thursday at Ider Town Park.
The win completed an area series sweep and gave Skyline its first area title since the 2015 season.
“It’s been a long time,” said Skyline head coach Kyle Wininger. “We were close last year. They had a bad taste in our mouth from that. Ider’s got a great program. For us to come do this is big. They’ve done it the right way. Super proud of them.”
Skyline (12-3, 6-0) will host the Area 16 runner-up in a Class 1A best-of-three first-round series April 24. Meanwhile, Ider will travel to in Round 1 to face the Area 16 champion.
The Vikings took charge of Game 2 immediately.
After singles by Kristian King and Davide Gambera and a walk by Will Gates loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, Jaxon Guthrie and Brantley Shelton followed with two-run singles. Trynton Paradise added an RBI double to increase the Skyline lead to 5-0, and Paradise scored when Micah Shelton reached on an error on a sacrifice bunt before Landon Framer closed the scoring in the inning with an RBI.
RBI singles from Guthrie and Shelton in the top of the second gave the Vikings a 9-0 lead, but Ider (14-8, 4-2) used three hits, two walks and two batters hit by pitches to pull within 9-6.
But Will Gates’ RBI single plated Kristian King, aboard on a double, for Skyline in the top of the third, and the Vikings continued to pile on the runs with a two-run fifth that featured Gambera’s RBI single and Gates’ RBI sacrifice fly before adding three more in the sixth on Paradise’s RBI single, King reaching on an error and Gambera’s RBI fielder’s choice to take a 15-6 lead. Skyline tacked on four more runs in top of the seventh, scoring a run on
an Ider error before Paradise hit an RBI single, Farmer was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Gambera drew a bases-loaded walk and Gates hit an RBI groundout.
Skyline finished with 20 hits and five walks. Every Viking in the starting lineup had at least one hit, and eight different Vikings drove in a run.
Paradise finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs, Gambera and Guthrie had three hits and two RBIs each and Brody Berninger had three hits and one RBI for Skyline while Farmer (two RBIs), King (RBI), Shelton (three RBIs) had two hits each Gates (three RBIs).
Left-hander Jaxon Guthrie got the win on the mound for Skyline, working six innings and recording five strikeouts. Shelton pitched the final inning for the Vikings and struck out two.
“Pitching was great for us (in the series),” Wininger said. “Will Gates was light out (in Game 1). Jaxon, aside from that one inning, was really good tonight. He moves the ball well and did a good job of that against them tonight.”
