The baseball team showed up big and put on a stellar performance in their game on Thursday night to beat the Richard Montgomery Rockets 8–7 in the first round of the playoffs. 

A downpour slightly delayed the start of the game, but soon enough the sun shone through to light the stage for an epic comeback. 

The Vikes came out with a bang as junior Liam Bowen stepped up to the plate to hit a booming home run to centerfield, putting Whitman up 1–0 in the bottom of the first inning. 

The Vikes couldn’t get too comfortable, though, as RM quickly matched Whitman, scoring a run in the top of the third inning to tie it up 1–1. 

Whitman came roaring back with a huge double by senior Niko Alexander to score freshman Sammy Berman, followed by a single from sophomore Ethan Murley to score Alexander, putting the Vikes up 3–1 in the bottom of the third inning. 

Unfortunately for the Vikes, that lead wouldn’t last long as RM quieted fans with a three-run inning to give RM their first lead of the game, 4–3, in the top of the fifth inning. 

RM kept the runs flowing in, tallying two more in the top of the sixth inning to extend their lead to 6–3 heading into the anticipated final inning of the game. 

Then began the monster comeback by the Vikes. Alexander opened the scoring with a sailing triple to score junior Ben Schlossman making it 6–4 in the bottom of the seventh inning. A cosmic double from junior Gibson Hirt and a vital single from senior Zach Yaqub scored two runs to send the game to extra innings all knotted up at six apiece. 

The Rockets took the lead off an error in the top of the eighth inning, but Whitman mustered all their remaining energy to finish off the comeback. Bowen scored his second home run of the game to tie it up and Alexander hit a single to send the Vikes into a dog pile as they defeated RM 8–7. 

The Vikes will face Walter Johnson in their second playoff game at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday at WJ. #Whitmanorbust