Joy Tan
Viking second baseman sophomore Justin Fung swings in a Viking victory against the Milpitas Trojans Friday at home. According to Milpitas head coach Zach Canez, the Trojans needed to remain competitive despite falling behind early on. "Playing a complete game was important," Canez said.
The Palo Alto High School Vikings boys baseball team (9-11) defeated the Milpitas High School Trojans (2-16), 9-0, on Friday at home — marking the 200th victory for head coach Pete Fukuhara.
According to Fukuhara, his 200th win was a result of strong senior leadership and teamwork throughout the game.
“It’s been great coaching here over the last 10 years and I’m just going to look up at the end of it,” Fukuhara said. “Our senior leadership has been fantastic. We’ve also had a junior behind the plate that’s been catching fantastic. The boys just come together and play some decent baseball at the right time.”
With a slow start in the first and second innings, action picked up in the third. Junior outfielder Dylan Robinson hit a ball to deep left field, allowing the runner on second base to score the first run for the Vikings.
Following Robinson’s hit, the Vikings quickly loaded the bases. Junior catcher Carter Bader then drove a ball to deep center field, bringing in two more runs. Soon after, junior right fielder Nate Robinson mirrored the play with a hit to left field, driving in another two and putting the Vikings up, 5-0.
Later in the inning, a hit to the midfield by senior pitcher Cormac White and a failed catch by Milpitas resulted in yet another pair of batters running through home. The score at the end of the third became 7-0 Vikings.
Milpitas attempted to score in the fourth and fifth innings but couldn’t capitalize on loaded bases, as senior pitcher Jackson Ehrlich shut them down.
According to Trojan pitcher Nathan Pagba, after a few mistakes early on, the team lost essential momentum.
“We kept it together well defensively and then after just one mistake that happened, we ended up falling apart a little bit,” Pagba said.
The Vikings scored again in the bottom of the fifth inning when Ehrlich hit to the outfield, allowing Bader to score an additional run for the Vikings.
In the bottom of the sixth, center fielder and senior Isaiah Walker hit to the outfield, allowing senior left and center fielder Coco Vonderhaar to score another run for the team, making the score 9-0 at the end of the game.
According to Walker, the secret to their success was not letting the opponent control the game.
“We didn’t play down to their level,” Walker said. “We played against the game not against them [Trojans] so that was one thing we did really well.”
Milpitas head coach Zach Canez said that the team is still trying to adjust to being in a higher division this year.
“Lately we’ve [Milpitas] been competing more,” Canez said, “We always just have a few innings where we just give up a lot of airs or hits and it tends to pile up on us. This is our first year of being up in this higher division, so just getting used to the level of play rather than just, come out and put up some runs on a team.”
The Vikings’ next game is away against the Homestead Mustangs (10-12) this Wednesday.