On a picturesque day at Aptos High, Soquel's 6-foot-9 Chris Viall pitched an equally beautiful game.
After walking the lead-off hitter, the Stanford-bound Viall rebounded and pitched a no-hitter, striking out 15.
Senior Steven Eichhorn pitched for Aptos and got two early outs, a ground ball to third basemen Nick Sakoda, and a fly ball to center field. The third batter for Soquel, Caleb Fidiam, hit a long home run over the fence in left field, making the score 1-0 Soquel after one.
Despite giving up a homer in the first inning Eichhorn threw six strong innings, giving up two runs and striking out five.
Aptos failed to score in the bottom half of the inning and their struggles continued the whole game. One by one, Mariner batters whiffed as Viall's fastball blew them away.
Max Lafonda and Nick Sakoda were the only players Viall failed to strike out.
Said Soquel lead-off hitter Finneas Del-Bonta Smith: “Our pitcher did a good job of throwing strikes” and “we (hit the ball well)."
With the win, Soquel improved to 5-1 in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, and erased a recent four-game losing streak. Aptos fell to 2-4 in the league standings and has now lost five of their last six.
St. Francis sits atop the SCCAL standings at 5-0 and will host Soquel at 4 p.m. on April 16.
Aptos will take on Scotts Valley on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in a battle for third place.
