The Palo Alto High School baseball team (18-3-1) defeated the Saratoga High School Falcons (15-8-0), 7-2, today at Paly.

The Vikings came back after allowing two runs in the top of the first inning.

The Falcons jumped out of the gate running, delivering timely hits and capitalizing on a few Vikings errors to take a promising 2-0 lead.

Yet the Vikings stormed back, starting with senior center fielder B.J. Boyd with contributions all around from the rest of the offense. Boyd kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly from senior shortstop Austin Braff. Once Boyd’s feet crossed home plate, the Vikings never looked back.

Senior first baseman Clay Carey praised the team’s preparations for facing a left-handed pitcher.

“We did really well,” Carey said. “We faced a lefty on Wednesday also and hit well against him too. We’ve been working all week on facing lefties with both of our coaches, who are lefties, throwing. Today, we really figured out what he [the Saratoga pitcher] was doing well and what he wasn’t doing well and capitalized on what he wasn’t; that’s why we scored the runs we did.”

The Vikings took the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the second inning as junior third baseman Michael Strong scored a run off of a sacrifice bunt by Boyd.

The Vikings rode the momentum the rest of the game led by senior designated hitter Isaac Feldstein, who had his second consecutive solid performance after hitting a  home run in Wednesday’s game against the Falcons and delivered two runs and one RBI on three plate appearances in the game.

The Vikings frustrated the Falcons throughout the game by forcing errors and putting pressure on the Falcons batters with suffocating defense.

Senior pitcher Ben Sneider threw a complete game, allowing two runs on three hits. He would force the final batter to pop fly the ball into the mitt of senior second baseman Jack Witte, ending the game in the top of the seventh, 7-2.

The Vikings head back onto the field to take on the Carmel High School Padres (13-7-0) at 2 p.m. this Saturday at Carmel.

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