After their season opening tournament at Globe Life Field was cancelled due to winter weather, the Vikings season opener was delayed to Monday, Feb. 2.
Game one
The Vikings took the walk-off in dramatic fashion, taking down the Wranglers 8-7, getting some late game magic, getting six runs in the seventh inning, four coming with two outs.
The Vikings opened the scoring with an RBI single by Rhys Vindiola, scoring Blake Lewis who opened the game with a leadoff single.
Odessa scored four runs in the third, getting a two run single from Connor Rabe, a two run double from Donovan Arroyo and a two run single by Anthony Llera to put the Vikings in a 6-1 hole. An RBI single from Jack Clark extended the Odessa lead to 7-1. The score remained until the seventh inning.
Easton Paxton led off the inning with a double, while Caleb Watkins drew a walk. Two batters later, JT Cienega ripped an RBI double to pull the Vikings within 7-2. Lewis followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 7-3. Two batters later Isaac Rios drew a walk to load the bases. Vindiola drove in his second run with a single, Jack Casteel was hit by a pitch and Paxton tied the game with a two run single to knot things up at 7-7.
The Vikings loaded the bases in the eighth inning, with Rios working another walk to score the game winner for the Vikings.
Grayson tallied 12 hits as a team, with Lewis finishing 3-3 to lead offensive. Rios drew three walks. Vindiola and Paxton each drove in a pair of runs.
Game two
An offensive explosion was the storyline of game two, with the Vikings getting some insurance runs in the later innings and withstanding an Odessa rally to take the 14-13 victory.
A sac fly, bases loaded walk and groundout gave Odessa the early 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the first, Rios reached on an error, moved to second on another error and scored on a single by Vindiola. Caleb Watkins followed with a run scoring triple to bring the Vikings within 3-2.
Camden Babcock's groundout extended the Odessa lead to 4-2, but the Vikings came back with a run in the bottom of the second on a sac fly from Lewis, scoring Reese Ogden, who led off the inning with a single, setting the stage for an eight run third inning.
Rios drew a walk to led off the third inning. Vindiola then worked a walk that was followed up by an RBI single from Watkins to tie the game at 4-4. Paxton ripped a two run double for a 6-4 Viking lead, with Ogden following suit with an RBI single and a 7-4 lead. Two batters later, Drew loaded the bases with a single. Campbell was hit by a pitch to score a run and Rios drew another walk to push the Viking lead to 9-4. Watkins capped the big inning with a two run single to lead 11-4.
Odessa cut it to one with a six run fourth inning scoring two runs on bases loaded walks and scoring four runs on two errors.
In the fifth inning, Lewis and Campbell worked leadoff walks. Vindiola followed up with a two run double to extend the lead to 13-10.
An RBI single from Odessa in the sixth inning cut the lead to 13-11, but Kingston Hangartner hit a homer for a 14-11 lead. Odessa hit a two run homer of Coleman Allison in the seventh inning, but he struck out the final batter to preserve the win.
Grayson tallied 14 hits with the heart of the order (Vindiola; 2-3, 2 RBI), (Watkins 3-4, 4 RBI) and Paxton (2-3, 2 RBI) combining to go 7-10 with eight RBI.
The Vikings will head to the University of Central Oklahoma to take part in the Spring 2026 JUCO Festival next week.
