DULLES FLEXES PITCHING MUSCLE IN TASO WIN

BY RANDY BYERS – COPYRIGHT HOUSTON 5A BASEBALL

VIKINGS PITCHING VERY DEEP

The Dulles Vikings opened the 2011 TASO-Houston Baseball Umpire’s Scholarship Tournament with a convincing 6-2 victory over the Spring Branch Memorial Mustangs.

Dulles flexed is collective pitching muscle displaying three of their likely five or six reliable & high quality Varsity arms.

Dakota Mills started for the Vikings and while he suffered some slight control issues, he certainly showed the Vikings faithful there are good things to come from him in 2012. New to the Vikings pitching mix in 2012 is Jacob Vasquez who showed very good velocity with developing off speed. Jacob suffered a few control issues if his own but his stuff was more than good enough to get the job done. Finishing up the evening for the Vikings was Cole Butler who looked right at home closing out the game and making very quick work of the Memorial batters he faced.

2010 All Houston 5A Pitcher Nick Hernandez didn’t see any action from the mound on Thursday but is expected to get a start on Saturday as is Caden Williams. Also available to the Vikings this weekend in there seemingly never ending pitching depth is Zach Belski, and Darren Sheppard, who both garnered action on the mound in 2010.

For the Mustangs on the mound, Ryan Doyle started and pitched into the fourth where he was relieved by Sean Duffey. Eventually Doyle and Duffey would surrender three runs apiece with Doyle picking uo the loss.

THE GAME

After an almost snoozer of a start the Memorial Mustangs jumped out ahead when Walker Pennington launched a no-doubter to left field giving the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. That was quickly followed by a Dylan Shofner single that plated a run on a Dulles error giving Memorial a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth.

In the Vikings’ fourth the wheels fell off the wagon for the Mustangs as Dulles plated all six of their runs with a mix timely, well placed singles, and some powerfully driven doubles. With the bases loaded Darren Sheppard hit an RBI-1B, Brady Latimer followed that up with a shot to the gap, 2-RBI-2B. Aaron Hudson continued the hit parade with an RBI-1B, followed by a bases loaded RBI-BB by Matt McGee. Zack Belski would then be hit by a pitch with the bases still loaded garnering him an RBI, Brady Latimer would then pick up another RBI on a 1B in his second at bat of the inning. Capping off the inning and the scoring for the Vikings would be a 2-out, Jacob Vasquez RBI-2B giving Dulles the commanding 6-2 lead.

THE NIGHTCAP

In the nightcap, defending Champion Cy Ranch Mustangs scored all four of their runs on a Derek Dickerson grand slam in the second inning dropping the Pearland Oilers 4-1.

Pearland newcomer Otis Latin (Madison) showed he has added velocity and some size over the summer. Latin demonstrated raw power from the mound with inconsistent control and showed a developing off speed pitch which could be devastating when combine with a well placed fastball.