The Palo Alto Vikings annihilated the Menlo Knights today at home 14-4.  The Vikings took off during the bottom of the second inning scoring 10 of their runs comprised of steals and singles, doubles and a triple.  Paly got 11 hits off the Knights and only allowed them to get seven hits, keeping them at zero until the fifth inning.

At the beginning of the game, the Vikings discovered that  pitcher Freddy Avis (’12) would not be playing.  Avis played for the Vikings as a freshmen, but transferred to Menlo as a Sophomore.

“We expected Freddy Avis to come in and start it off, so it threw us off a little when a lefty came in,” infielder Austin Braff (’12) said.  “We were swinging the bats pretty well today and got up pretty early in the game, so that was good to see off a pretty good pitcher too.”

The Knights sent in  Jake Batchelder (’12) to start Menlo off instead.  Coach Erick Raich agreed that the change threw the team off at first.

“We didn’t expect to see Batchelder, but soft lefties have been giving us a little bit of trouble,” Raich said.  “Finally we came out and hammered the ball around the yard.”

The first inning started with Paly in the field and pitcher Danny Erlich (’14) on the mound.  Erlich started out strong by striking out Avis.  With a toss from infielder Jack Witte (’12) to first baseman Clay Carey (’12) the Vikings got their second out.  Then, Menlo knocked a fly ball out to John Dickerson (’12) in left field for an easy catch.

B.J. Boyd (’12) stepped up to the plate at the start of the bottom of the first.  Batchelder managed to strike Boyd out after several foul balls.  Next Braff took the plate and hit a grounder toward the Menlo shortstop.  The ball bounced over his gloved and allowed Braff to squeeze in a single.

Dickerson scored the first run for the Vikings.  While Dickerson was at bat, Braff stole both second and third base with ease.  Dickerson hit him home with a double over the second baseman. However, he was picked off when he attempted to steal third.

During the top of the second inning Erlich denied the Knights any chance of getting a hit so the Vikings were quickly up to bat again.

Justin Grey (’12) led the momentum that brought the team 10 runs in the inning by hitting a single out toward third.  While Isaac Feldstein (’13) was at bat, Grey stole second on a high throw.  Feldstein ended up getting walked to first giving Paly two occupied bases.  Next Rohit Ramkumar (’13) was forced out, but knocked Grey and Feldstein to third and second base, respectively.  Following this, Batchelder gave Witte a walk to load the bases.

Boyd once again took the plate with a chance to knock in some runs.  He did not let his team down and drove in Grey and Feldstein with a drive down the first base line.  Fortunately for Boyd, the first baseman missed the ball giving Boyd a single and two runs.

Braff went up to bat again hoping to bring in another run.  In the midst of all the excitement, Boyd stole second.  Once again, Batchelder walks the hitter to first.  For the second time the bases were loaded with Witte on third, Boyd on second and Braff on first.  Dickerson drove the ball down the center allowing Witte and Boyd to bring in two more runs for the Vikings.

Christian Lonsky (’12) continued the momentum by hitting in Braff.  Grey went up to bat for a second time in the inning, where Dickerson steals home plate.  Grey followed by batting one in deep right where the outfielder dropped the ball giving him a triple and bringing Lonsky home.  The Vikings now led 8-0.

First baseman Carey hit a single over third base where Grey scored his second run of the game.  Feldstein took the plate again and plowed it into deep left at the base of the fence. Although Feldstein only ran a double, Carey ran home.  The second inning finally came to an end with the Vikings up by 10.

The third inning went by without a run from either team.

During the bottom of the fourth, the Vikings scored their next three runs.  Menlo decided to try out Tom Flippin (’13) as pitcher, but the change did not stop the Vikings.  Kyle Stewart (’13) scored off a double by Rowan Thompson (’13).  Alec Wong (’12) hit a single giving Paly two bases. While Ramkumar was at bat, Thompson stole home and Wong third.  Jack Cleasby (’14) brought Wong home with a single.

The fourth ended with Paly up 13 to Menlo’s zero.

As the winner of the game started to become clear, the Paly defense swapped up a few positions.  Although the team started to give up some runs, Raich thought it was worth it.

“We were giving up some runs in that situation so we could see what some guys could do and implement some things so it wasn’t a big deal,” Raich said.

They used this lead as an opportunity to see what some players could do and get others back into shape.

“Probably more importantly, [we needed to] command the strike zone a little better for our pitchers, but Dickerson hadn’t thrown in a while so we needed him to get a lot of work there,” Raich said.

On Wednesday the Vikings will play away against the Mountain View Spartans at 3:30.