The Lynbrook Vikings served notice last week that they don’t plan on a repeat of their dismal 2014 baseball campaign.
Rebounding from back-to-back losses to league-leading Gunn, the Vikes, who finished dead last in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division with a miserable 3-12 record, won two of three divisional outings last week, including an upset of defending co-champion Fremont.
A two-run rally in the bottom of the seventh completed a rousing comeback from an early 6-0 deficit, lifting Lynbrook to a shocking 7-6 win over the Firebirds.
Fremont, which tied for the El Camino crown last year with Milpitas, bounced back two days later to avenge the loss with an 8-3 win over the Vikes. But Lynbrook finished the week with a 9-4 romp over Harker, putting the Vikings within one victory of equaling their win total for the entire 2014 SCVAL season.
Run-producing hits by Alonzo Vergara, T.J. Solomona, T.J. Luke, Nick Tognoli, Dean Otsuka and Levi Torio keyed a six-run, third-inning outburst that staked Fremont to a 6-0 lead in its first meeting with Lynbrook. But the Vikes battled back with two runs in the bottom of the third, two more in the fourth and one in the fifth to cut their deficit to one, setting the stage for their dramatic game-winning rally.
George Ku lashed three hits, scored three runs and drove in one, and Jonathan Chang stroked three hits, scored two runs and knocked in another to highlight Lynbrook’s 10-hit attack in the win.
Greg Lerner collected three RBIs without the benefit of a hit, and Anshul Shah and Alex Shin both chipped in with a solo RBI.
Lerner, who came on in relief in the top of the fourth and blanked Fremont over the final four innings on just one hit while striking out four, earned the victory.
Vergara, a freshman, and Tognoli, a sophomore, had two hits apiece for the Firebirds.
In the rematch, Fremont again raced out to a commanding early lead–5-0 through three innings–but this time held on to win, thanks to the pitching of Torio.
The Firebird senior went the distance, surviving a rocky fourth inning when the Vikes rallied for all of their three runs, to pick up his first win of the 2015 campaign. He issued just two walks and fanned four.
Robert O’Connor drove in a pair of runs with three hits, and Solomona also knocked in a pair with a double and a single to spark the ‘Birds at the plate. Vergara, Fremont’s lead-off hitter, added two hits and came around to score three times.
Against Harker, Lynbrook fell behind early for the third straight game, but scored nine times in the first three innings and then coasted to a relatively easy win.
After the Eagles struck for two runs in the top half of the first inning, the Vikings erupted for three runs in the bottom of the first, four more in the second and another two in the third to seize control of the game, 9-3.
Shin drove in four runs with a pair of doubles, Chang plated two runs with a single, Eddie Fu drilled a pair of doubles, and both Ku and Otoshi contributed two hits and an RBI to pace an 11-hit Viking assault.
Six Viking pitchers–Ku, Shin, Chang, Ben Cousins, Kohei Suzuki and Jeff Wallis–combined to hold Harker to just three hits while striking out five.
Meanwhile, Monta Vista and Cupertino opened their El Camino Division seasons by splitting a home-and-away series.
The Pioneers won the series opener 9-5 behind the pitching of Kyle Avvakumovits and the batting of Daniel Kono, who had three hits.
Sam Nastari had a single, double and run-batted-in for the Mats.
In the rematch two days later, Monta Vista pulled out a 5-3 triumph, erasing a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the fifth with a three-run rally that put the Mats ahead to stay.
Tim Iwamoto sparked the come-from-behind Matador win with three hits, two RBIs, a run scored and a stolen base. Kevin Nordby chipped in with a pair of hits and two runs scored.
Nordby picked up the win in relief, holding Cupertino to one unearned run over the final three innings. He walked no one and struck out four.
In the SCVAL’s De Anza Division, Homestead, after opening the season with a two-game sweep of Los Altos, was swept by co-leader Palo Alto, 11-0 and 12-2.
The Mustangs managed only four hits in the series-opening shutout, including a pair of singles by Matt Copley.
Copley banged out three more hits in the rematch.
