An RBI single from senior Alec Strachota in the top of the 13th led North Park to a 4-1 season-opening victory over UW-Oshkosh at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Illinois Saturday night.
A Mitch Jordan two-run single padded the Viking lead as junior Mario Creecy, Jr. pitched a perfect bottom half of the 13th to earn the save.
"We were well prepared and our guys worked hard," Vikings' head coach Luke Johnson said. "Sometimes it takes three or four games to get started but our guys looked to be in midseason form already."
After senior Ray Cekus (single) gave North Park a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning coming home on Dan Sabin's reach on a fielder's choice, UWO tied things up in the eighth on a sacrifice fly RBI and things stayed even for the next five innings.
Despite not factoring in the decision Viking starter Brent Kessinger went seven solid innings, yielding only four hits while striking out one and walking one. Senior Eric Bacon earned his first win of the season as he worked 3 1/3 innings. He struck out one and walked one while inducing four groundball outs. In all, the Vikings turned three double plays.
"We pitched well all around and turned some nice double plays and almost had a triple play at the end of the game," Johnson said. "Three-fourths of our roster produced offensively as well which was great to see."
North Park concludes its southern Illinois trip tomorrow with a 10 a.m. game against host Webster University followed by a 1 p.m. contest against Buena Vista.
