Baseball team finishes third in NFL

by Eric Keppeler
Grand Island Dispatch, June 15, 2007

Grand Island first baseman Joel Klock, right, flips the baseball to his brother Matt, the pitcher covering first base, during a recent Vikings baseball game. (photo by Larry Austin)

The Grand Island baseball team put together another solid season in 2007, even if it wasn’t quite the finish the Vikings had hoped for.

Grand Island wound up 11-7 overall and 8-6 in the Niagara Frontier League, good for third place in that league behind Niagara-Wheatfield and Niagara Falls. Then, with Section VI Class A title playoff aspirations, the Vikings fizzled in the postseason, beating Iroquois in the pre-quarterfinals before the season came to an end against West Seneca East in the quarters.

“We always set our goals high,” Grand Island baseball coach Dean Santorio said. “We always want to finish at the top. We played well for the most part, but we lost three one-run games in our league. We just didn’t get that clutch hit when we needed it, and we also had a few untimely errors.”

The playoffs were a struggle. In the win over Iroquois, the Vikings had to rally from a 4-1 deficit before beating the Chiefs 5-4 in eight innings. Freshman Joel Klock was the winning pitcher, offering four innings of one-hit relief for the victory. Junior Matt Klock hit a two-run single to tie the game in the seventh, and then senior Matt McKenna hit an RBI single in the eighth for the win.

Against West Seneca East, the Vikings were doomed by a poor start as Grand Island fell behind 7-0 after three innings and couldn’t recover.

“We battled back some, but not nearly enough,” Santorio said. “Again, we didn’t hit the ball when we needed to and we made a bunch of errors. It was just a bad time for it.”

Not surprisingly, the Vikings landed a good number of players on the NFL All-League team.

Senior outfielder Chris Rajczak earned First Team honors as a designated hitter, finishing the season with a .439 average and eight RBI.

Matt Klock made the Second Team as an outfielder with identical stats, and sophomore catcher Joe Oliverio (.351, 12 RBI) also made the Second Team.

The Vikings’ middle infielders, junior Neal DeMartin and sophomore Chris Podlucky, both earned Third Team honors with identical stats (.333, 12 RBI). DeMartin started the season at second base with Podlucky at short, but Santorio switched them midway through the season and both players seemed more comfortable after that.

Senior Frank Black also had a good year as Grand Island’s designated hitter, finishing with a .325 average.

As far as pitching, Matt Klock wound up with the team lead in victories with a 3-1 record. Joel Klock finished 2-2, and struck out an impressive 20 batters among the 79 that he faced. Senior Justin McInerney also pitched two victories.

“Some of the guys really had fantastic years,” Santorio said. “Our pitching was solid. We had hoped to do a little better in sectionals, but we didn’t hit the ball. But overall, I’m very happy with the year we had. We’re already looking forward to getting after it again next season.”