Baseball lost the first game of a three game series to Wilcox 4-3 and now face elimination in the league tournament.

After giving up a run in the top of the second, the Vikings responded quickly and took the lead. In the bottom half of the inning, Nathan Willis (‘18), Jonathan Gottlieb (‘18), Angus Stayte (‘17), and Josh Kasevich (‘19) strung together four consecutive singles to take a 2-1 lead.

After a scoreless third inning, Wilcox took control of the game when they scored a run in the top of the fourth to tie the game. Paly fed into that momentum with a quiet bottom half of the inning.

Wilcox’s momentum combined with poor Viking execution in the fifth inning led to two runs and a 4-2 lead. The runs scored on a fielding error and a bunt that Paly wasn’t able to get the out at the plate on.

At this point, Wilcox’s control of the game was firm, and they held their lead to win 4-3.

“Regarding the game, it felt like we came out a little flat and just didn’t have as much energy or the same win-at-all-costs mindset that we usually have,” Gottlieb said. “Moving forward we have to just reset and play our game and the rest will take care of itself.”

“We hurt ourselves on defense and hit into some unlucky outs,” Niko Lillios (‘18) said. “We will move forward by continuing to do what we have been doing the whole season and play our brand of baseball.”

The Vikings will look to retake control of the series Thursday at Wilcox at 4 o’clock.