The baseball team defeated the Einstein Titans, 22-0, in their season and home opening game on Mar. 22.

Starting pitcher Michael Flack began the game by walking a Titan player to first base. After a sacrifice bunt that moved the base runner to second, Flack struck out the next two Titan hitters to end the inning.

Outfielder James Dionne started the bottom of the first inning by sharply lining the ball up the middle of the field for a single. Dionne stole second and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly off the bat of second baseman Sam Avayou. When the Titan pitcher attempted to pick off Dionne, the ball went over the third baseman’s head and the Vikings had their first run.

The Vikings continued to use their speed to their advantage when outfielder Drew Aherne stole second while simultaneously third baseman Paul Balland took off for home and scored. Infielder Andrew Castagnetti ripped a double that scored outfielder Henry Kuhn and first baseman Dan Duffy. The Vikings built a 6-0 lead heading into the second inning.

Flack allowed the first batter he faced to single and advance to second on a pass ball, but similar to the first inning, he struck out the next two hitters to end the top of the second and strand the Titan base runner.

The Vikings continued their impressive hitting performance by scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the second inning. Balland started the 10-run inning by lacing a double into the outfield that allowed Flack and Avayou to score for the seventh and eighth run of the game.

Numerous pass balls and wild pitches allowed the Vikings to advance their runners and cross home plate. The Vikings took advantage of the poor defense and batted around in the inning. When Balland came up for the second time in the inning, he smashed a pitch into deep center field. The Titan outfielder fell down on the play, allowing Flack and Avayou to score once again and Balland to advance to third. The Viking lead was up to 16-0 by the end of the bottom of the second inning.

Flack continued to handle the Titan lineup and stuck another two batters out, bringing his strikeout count to six.

Outfielder Ben Page batted in the only run of the third inning, when he sharply singled Castagnetti in to bring the score to 17-0.

Flack was relieved in the top of the fourth inning by Michael Yang. Yang allowed one hit and struck one Titan out before the inning came to a close.

The Vikings loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fourth after pinch hitter Michael West crossed the plate for the 18 run off the bat of Castagnetti. The Titans walked in four runs while the bases were loaded to bring the score to 22-0.

Kuhn came in for the last inning of the game and struck out two batters. The game ended after five innings due to the mercy rule.

“The pitchers threw consistent strikes,” Flack said. “We knew going into the game we would be able to score runs, so we just needed to play solid defense and have the pitchers pump strikes and we would be okay.”

The boys will welcome back manager Joe Cassidy off of his one game suspension and attempt to put together an early season winning streak when they go on the road next to take on the Magruder Colonels on Mar. 23.

“It always feels good to start the season on the right foot,” Balland said. “Preseason ranking are nice, but we are out her to prove why we got those ranking in the first place.”