by Bill Turner
Northside took advantage of three walks, an error and misplayed rundown to score a pair of runs in the top of the fifth inning, as the Vikings edged Cave Spring in non-district baseball last Friday at Knights Field.
Northside had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a Todd Dunbar RBI single, before Cave Spring knotted the score in the bottom of the frame when Steve Klaiber’s double off the center field fence plated Austin Epperly.
The Vikings used a pair of walks and a Knight infield error to load the bases with none out in the fifth. A wild pitch scored the second Viking run, before another base-on-balls and sacrifice fly gave Northside the 3-1 edge.
Cave Spring closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Klaiber scored on a Jordan Bryant sacrifice fly to deep left.
Northside added an insurance run in the sixth to close out the scoring.
“I think our top four hitters have earned a lot of respect,” Northside Head Coach Ed Culicerto pointed out after the game in regard to the walks that aided the Viking cause. “Cave Spring has some great hitters. It was a great baseball game today, and one that helps us for our Blue Ridge District opener against Alleghany.”
“We made three errors in the field, and four mental errors,” Cave Spring head coach David Dunstan noted. “It’s hard to recover from that, especially against a team like Northside. We’ll be all right. We’ve still got players shaking off the basketball stuff.”
Northside followed Friday’s win with a doubleheader sweep Saturday over Shady Springs (WV) to improve to 8-0. Cave Spring downed Jefferson Forest 7-4 on the road Saturday afternoon.
