By By ERIKA PICKLES / NIles Daily Star
NILES - It was the battle of the two undefeated teams in the Big 16 West Division Conference and only one could claim the Conference Championship Tuesday evening.
The Vikings hosted St. Joe as both teams went head-to-head for the top position and in the end the Bears were named champions as they gave Niles its first two losses in the conference.
It was home run central as Niles had a combined six home runs while the Bears had a combined seven.
After an 6-1 lead from Niles early in the first game, St. Joe rallied from a five run deficit and in seven innings and took the 16-11 first game win.
The Bears took an early 1-0 lead after the top of the first inning, but Niles' bats got rolling and the Vikes were able score five runs.
Steve Clanton and Cory Coquillard were the first to Niles runners to make it to base after both hitting a single up the middle of the infield.
Lyle Watson added another single down the third base line, which allowed Clanton to score Niles' first run.
Rick Storm hit a single past St. Joe's shortstop to allow another run to score.
Matt Richardson nailed a home run to add three more runs to the Vikings score and put them up 5-1.
Jesse Sallak continued the power hitting for Niles getting a double and Aaron Ralston hit a ground ball to third base, but the ball was over thrown at first to allow Sallak to score and give Niles the 6-1 lead.
The Vikings got two more runs in the second inning to put them up by seven runs.
Five runs from St. Joe in the top of the third put the Bears back in the game and two runs away from a tie, but another two runs from Niles in the bottom of the third put it back up by four.
St. Joe picked the pace back up and scored seven runs in the fourth inning and three in the sixth to put it back in the lead for the first time since the first inning.
The Vikings had one last attempt in the seventh to catch up to the 16-10 lead, but were only able to score one run and fell 16-11.
Derek Bross was the winning pitcher against Niles' Adrain Davis.
Top hitters for Niles were Richardson, Josh Henry, Cory Coquillard and Lyle Watson who all had homeruns while Jesse Sallak and Steve Clanton added doubles.
The Vikings fell 11-8 in another close second game.
Niles had a 1-0 lead most of the second game until St. Joe tied it in the fifth inning.
The Bears took the lead in the top of the 5-1 lead in the top of the fifth, but the Vikings scored seven runs to put them back in the game with an 8-5 lead.
St. Joe again bounced back ahead in the seventh inning scoring six runs and Niles' last chance to catch up was unsuccessful as the Bears walked away the Conference Champions.
Jesse Sallak suffered the pitching loss for Niles against Jarrett Broos.
Davis and Watson both had home runs for Niles in game two and Josh Henry added a double.
The Vikings will host Berrien Springs on Thursday for a non-conference game set to begin ay 4 p.m.
Vikings JV team splits with St. Joe
NILES - After receiving a 13-3 win in the first of two games Tuesday afternoon, Niles' JV baseball team fell in the second game to host St. Joe 10-1 to split a pair of Big 16 West Division games.
Dustin Anderson picked up the pitching win for Niles in the first game.
Top hitters for the Vikes were Keith Bouwkamp with a double, three singles and two RBIs, Josh Beers with a triple, two singles and four RBIs, Eric Fredline with three singles and two RBIs and Drew Donohue with a double and a RBI.
In the second game it was Tim Hardy who suffered the picthing loss and added one single for Niles.
Donohue and Beers both had two singles and Kevin Ostrowski, Bouwkamp, Fredline and Matt Colburn all added singles for the Vikings.
Niles JV sweeps Paw Paw
NILES - On Saturday Niles picked up two wins against Paw Paw winning the first game 15-3 and the second 13-1.
Dustin Anderson was the winning picther in the first game and Tim Hardy picked up the win in the second game.
Top hitters for the day were Josh Beers with five combined singles, Tim Hardy with three doubles and two singles, Kevin Ostrowski with five singles and Drew Donohue with a home run, six singles and seven RBIs.