Marks, Joseph pace Vikings in victory over Sallies

Cape Henlopen traveled north Saturday afternoon to take on Salesianum on a busy day of Delaware high school baseball. Cape came into the contest touting a 13-2 record, having only lost to Sussex Central and Sussex Tech. while Sallies carried a 7-4 record into the 12 noon start. Right out of the gate the Vikings came out hot putting together some solid early at bat against Salesianum starter Jack Rossi which would pay dividends in the later innings. The Viking would explode in the top of the 4th with 6 runs on a number of hard hit balls to outfield, three walks and a few throwing errors by the Sallies defense allowing runners to move up a base. Brady Kosc, Gage Joseph, Lex Wescott all singled in the inning. 7-0 Vikings going into the bottom of the fourth. Sallies would eventually make a pitching change with 2 outs in the 4th but not until the damage was done and any life the home team had seemed to dampen on the dreary Saturday in North Wilmington. Rossi went 3 2/3 inning for Salesianum. Cape added two more runs in the fifth for good measure while the home team Sallies scored one run in both the 4th and the 5th inning.

After making the 2 hour trip north, the Vikings squad displayed focus and energy on a day in which many people could have easily struggled to due so due to the cold a rainy conditions. Gage Joseph paced the Vikings overall going 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs at the plate. Joseph also led a strong defensive effort for the Vikings behind pitcher Brad Marks who earned the win. Right fielder Brian Fleming and Lex Wescott added two hits as well.

The aforementioned Marks was solid on the mound going 5 2/3 innings without running into any real trouble until the 5th. Marks shut down the Sallies bats when it counted with runners in scoring position forcing Sallies to leave runners stranded in almost every inning. Marks’ curveball was particularly effective as a go to pitch when he did fell behind in the count. 4 hits across 5 and two thirds innings for the right hander. Cape was the better team in all aspects of the game, at least on this day, stealing four bases, earning 6 walks and playing stellar defense to go along with 11 hits and 8 RBIs. Salesianum had 5 hits on the day with Rossi taking the loss giving up 7 earned runs.