The road warrior Grayson Vikings continued on the road traveling to No. 2 Blinn to begin a three game series on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Game one
The Vikings fell 15-11 in game one in a back and forth contest.
In the first inning, David Hogg II homered on a full count to put the Vikings up 1-0. Blinn's Jacob Bohacek homered in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 1-1.
In the second inning, Rhys Vindiola led off with a single, JT Cienega grounded into a fielder's choice, Easton Paxton moved him over to third with a single and Blake Lewis gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead in the second inning.
A.J. DePaolo homered in the bottom of the third for Blinn to tie the game at 2-2. Later in the inning, Zachary Tuxhorn hit a three run home run to put Blinn in front 5-2.
Reese Lunsford scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning and Hunter Smolinski hit an RBI single for a 7-2 lead. Tuxhorn drove in another run to make it 8-2 in favor of Blinn, but the Vikings weren't done.
In the fifth inning, Reese Ogden led off with a single and scored on a two run homer by JT Cienega (his first of the season). Cienega hit his second homer, this time a three run blast in the sixth inning to bring the Vikings within 8-7.
Drew Britton homered for Blinn in the seventh inning and DePaolo plated another run with a fielder's choice ground out to put the Vikings down 10-7. Jacob Bohacek hit a two run double in the seventh inning to make it a 12-7 game.
Caleb Watkins hit his first home run of the season for the Vikings in the eighth inning to cut the deficit to 12-8. Later in the inning, the Vikings loaded the bases getting singles from Isaac Rios and Cienega and a walk by Rhys Vindiola. Caden Campbell came off the bench and hit a pinch hit RBI single and Easton Paxton followed with a two run single to cut the deficit to 12-11.
Blinn would add three in the eighth inning and the Vikings comeback fell just short.
Cienega drove in five runs on three hits for the Vikings. Isaac Rios had a three hit game, while Lewis, Reese Ogden, Paxton and Watkins all had 2 hits each. Paxton also drove in a pair of runs. As a team the Vikings tallied 18 hits.
Game two
The last two games were played as a doubleheader on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Blinn scored a pair of runs in the first, eight runs in the second and three in the third inning as the deficit was too much to overcome for the Vikings.
Paxton hit a two run single in the fourth with the bases loaded, scoring Cienega who had walked in the inning and Colton Roquemore who had a single with one out in the inning.
Paxton finished the game with two hits, while Rios, Lewis and Roquemore each tallied a hit. Hogg II had two walks for the Vikings.
Game three
Blinn took the finale of the three game series by a score of 9-3.
Roquemore finished a double short of the cycle for the Vikings. He hit his first home run of the season in the fifth inning, an RBI triple in the seventh to score Rios, who had led off with a walk and finished his day with an RBI single, scoring Rios, who had doubled to lead off the ninth inning.
Roquemore's three hit and three RBI day bumped his batting average up to .440, good for third on the team behind Paxton (.458) and Lewis (.464) in the early season. Roquemore's 11 hits thus far is tied for second on the team with Paxton and only trailing Lewis who has 13.
The Vikings will have one more road game as they will take on No. 25 Midland on Tuesday, Feb. 24 in a single nine inning game. The game will be played at Abilene Christian University with first pitch slated for 12pm.
The Vikings home opener will be a three game series against Howard beginning next Wednesday, Feb. 25. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Wednesday and a single game on Thursday.
