Baseball picked up their first win of the season against Aragon by the score of 6-5 on Saturday morning.

The Vikings got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter Ben Cleasby (’17) reached base on a hit by pitch and was knocked in two batters later on a double from Angus Stayte (’17). They would add two more runs in the bottom of the second to take a commanding 3-0 lead after just the first two innings.

After adding a fourth run in the bottom of the 5th on a sac fly from Ryan Chang (’17) that scored Nick Melvin (’18), the Vikings looked in control. 

Starting pitcher Aron Ecoff (’17) pitched 5.2 innings of scoreless baseball before being replaces by Jonathan Gottlieb (’18) in the top of the 6th. 

“It feels good [getting the first win of the season]. I just wanted to go out there with the mentality of winning, staying positive, and throwing strikes,” Ecoff said.

The Vikings would add, what would end up being, two crucial runs in the bottom of the sixth to go into the final frame with a large, 6-0 lead.

The top of the 7th was a long inning for the Vikings. Combining hits, walks, and errors, Aragon was able to bring the score to 6-5 with only 1 out. Niko Lillios (’18) then came into pitch for the Vikings and was able to get the final two outs needed with a strikeout and a ground out.

“We walked some guys, we kind of created the rally for them in the 7th, but it’s early and we’ll be able to fix those things,” head coach Pete Fukahara said.

The baseball team will be looking to build off of the positives of this game next time out on Tuesday against Pioneer.