Schreiber Baseball’s Skid Hits Six

After starting the season 5-0, the Schreiber Vikings (2-6 AA-II, 5-6 overall) baseball team has now lost six straight games after a 4-2 loss to the Herricks Highlanders (7-1 AA-II, 7-2 overall) on Wednesday.

The Vikings were held to just two hits by Herricks pitcher John Quinn, who pitched 6 2/3 innings with one earned run and six strikeouts.

"We're not hitting. We had two hits," Vikings coach Matt Holzer said after the game. "But we hung tough, we did battle. We got a guy on there in the last inning, got a run home, put some pressure on them, and knocked out their starting pitcher. But again, with two hits you're not going to win very many games."

Despite taking the loss, Vikings' ace Everett Keller pitched another great game. He allowed just three earned runs in six innings. The loss marks the third time this season that Keller has received two runs or less of support in a loss.

"I thought he threw well," Holzer said of Keller. "Unfortunately, he throws well enough to win and we just don't back him up with any kind of offense."

The first three innings saw the scored tied at one, but with two outs in the top of fourth, the Highlanders collected a single which would have been a routine play had the ball not hit off of third base. After the unfortunate bounce, the Highlanders had two more hits to take a 2-1 lead.

"It was a tough game," Keller said after the loss. "There were a few tough hits that just dropped in where they got lucky. I don't think my fastball was up to snuff today and I think if I had a little more control it could have been a closer game."

The Highlanders scored one run in the sixth inning, and another on an error in the seventh to increase their lead to 4-1.

A walk and an error by the Highlanders in the bottom of the seventh cut the lead to 4-2, but Herricks' closer Jon Feuer shut the door on Vikings third baseman Ethan Sander to win the game.

"If we can get a few more timely hits and just have a few more drop in, that would be the difference," Keller added.

But there are still six games left in the season and more than enough time for the Vikings to regain their form and move up in their conference.

"At this point we just have to keep working, just keep plugging away, and hopefully we'll start getting some of those bounces, where it bounces off of third base and rolls down and leads to a run," Holzer said. "We just have to keep working."

The Vikings will look to snap their skid on Thursday when they host Valley Stream Central at Guggenheim Elementary School at 4:30 p.m.