The Paly baseball team defeated cross-town rival Gunn 9-1 at home on Friday afternoon. Despite a slow start, the Vikings put the game out of reach with a late offensive outburst.

Corey Bicknell (‘15) started pitching for the Vikings, giving up only one hit in the first inning.  Paly had a similar start to Gunn in the bottom of the first, getting only one player on base.

In the top of the second, the Vikings gave up three hits and one walk, allowing the Titans to score their first run. In the bottom of the second, Paly had three hits and the bases loaded after Daniel Tachna-Fram (‘14) had a bunt down the third base line, but were unable to score.

Coach Erick Raich was not happy about how the team was playing in the first few innings.

“Brain dead,” Raich said. “I don’t know. It’s just been that kind of year. Some of our guys just aren’t mentally prepared in the batter’s box before they get in there.”

Paly was able to keep Gunn from scoring a single run in the top of the third by getting the first three batters of the inning out.  The Vikings claimed the lead of the game after Phil Lewis (‘15) singled and was able to advance to third on an error by the centerfielder. Jack Cleasby (‘14) then hit a sacrifice fly to left field which allowed Lewis to score. After several errors from Gunn, both Austin Kron (‘14) and Owen Plambeck (‘16) got on base.  Lawrence Han (‘16) then hit a pop fly to left field and another run scored.

As the game progressed and the Vikings started scoring more runs, Raich was more satisfied with how his team was playing.

“We got better as the game went along,” Raich said. “I wasn’t real happy early in the game. Gunn, for them, that’s probably their season there, doing real well. But, it’s a cross town rival game so it could easily make your season, so we knew that they would come out and play pretty tough. Luckily, we were able to distance ourselves as the game went along.”

The fourth inning was uneventful, as Paly got out the first three Gunn batters and only four Paly batters got up to the plate.

Bicknell thought that stopping the Titans from scoring more runs was a team effort.

“I got hit hard but my defense helped me out,” Bicknell said.

In the fifth inning, the Vikings stopped the Titans once again and then went on a hitting streak and scored seven more runs. Neither team scored again during the game and in top of the seventh the Vikings brought in both Michael Pappas (‘15) and Walker Ritchie (‘15) to pitch for part of the inning.

Overall, the Paly and Gunn rivalry made both teams want to play especially well.

“Basically we want to beat them more, they want to beat us more,” Bicknell said. “They played hard.”

The Vikings next face College Park at home on Saturday, April 12.