Oakmont baseball splits 4 games in Fresno

Facing stiff competition at the 55th annual Easter Baseball Classic in Fresno, Oakmont's varsity boys baseball team split four games. The Vikings opened the tournament April 14 with an 8-2 loss to Buchanan, the second time this season Buchanan has beaten the Vikings. Oakmont played two games on April 15, opening with a 4-3 win over the Highland Scots of Bakersfield. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Oakmont scored twice to win it. Trevor Wilson led off with a double, his third hit of the game. Cooper Kunis doubled in Wilson to tie the score 3-3. Beau Ogles followed with an infield single to reach first. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch before Highlands intentionally walked Aaron Martin to load the bases. Highland nearly got out of the jam, as Jack Rossmiller's ground ball to first base forced Kunis out at home and then Brady Fearn struck out for the second out of the inning. KC Tibbets, however, singled and Ogles scored the winning run. Jaylan Patterson pitched six innings and allowed one unearned run and four hits while striking out six. Zayne Ball pitched the seventh and got the win. Ayden Dringenberg was the tough-luck loser in the second game of the day, as Oakmont lost 1-0 to Clovis West. Clovis West scored in the first inning and that's all it needed because Oakmont only managed two hits and struck out seven times. Oakmont ended the tournament on April 16 with a 3-0 win over Madera. The Vikings scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and received solid pitching from starter Brayden Saucedo, who threw 6 1/3 innings and allowed three hits and struck out four. Kaden Gaza relieved and recorded one out before Ball entered and recorded the final out of the game. Kunis drove in Wilson in the fourth inning. Fearn walked with the bases loaded to push across Martin in the fifth inning, then Rossmiller singled in Tibbets in the sixth for Oakmont's third and final run. "I thought it went OK," Oakmont coach Paul Martinez said. "We went 2-2 and we probably should have gone 3-1, as we let one game slip away. "We go down there to see as good as competition as we can get in front of and we played some good teams so that's what we're after." The Vikings (19-5 overallm 8-0 Pioneer Valley League) has games this week at Lincoln on Wednesday and at home against Lincoln on Friday. If Oakmont wins both, it will be the PVL champion.