On Saturday, April 19, La Jolla Vikings clutched a 3-2 win against San Diego High at Petco Park. Competing at the John Baumgarten Classic, Vikings vs. Cavers proved to be a close match. Concluding the 7th inning with a 2-2 tie, an additional 8th inning was needed for the Vikes to take the final victory when center fielder Adam Lafever finally touched home.
The Cavers came out firing early, scoring the first run of the game in the 1st inning and accumulating three hits, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the Vikes. Three double plays saved La Jolla, with a phenomenal connection between second baseman Renner Smith and first baseman Ryan Kestler. La Jolla shut the Cavers down without letting them score again and bagged two innings later to tie the game.
Right fielder Harper Lane said, “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not many people get to do what we did, and play on a field like that. It was even better that we won.” According to MaxPreps, the top performers of the game were Travis Lancaster, with four innings pitched, one earned run, and two strikeouts. Hank Hansen added one triple, and both runs batted in for the game.
Head Coach Gary Frank said, “The best part of the experience for me is when they take us into the stadium and walk us through the tunnel underneath where the Padres enter, and watching all of the players’ eyes light up as we get to the last tunnel, and they see the sunlight. They get to the dugout and see the whole stadium, and it kinda hits him for the first time that it’s the real big league stadium. All of a sudden, all of their little childhood dreams come true when they walk into that dugout for the first time.”