Enid, OK – As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end." The history-making season for the Vikings Baseball team came to an end yesterday afternoon with their second loss at the NJCAA D2 College World Series.

Westchester has nothing to hang their heads about. A 32 win ball club that notched Head Coach Billy McClure's 400^th career win; two players hitting their 100^th career hit (Tommy Poggi and Marc Stockhausen); two players receiving National Player of the Week (Jackson Kossow and Mike Tiseo); 10 players making the All-Region Team, two of them being named Region 15 Player of the Year (Poggi) and Region 15 Pitcher of the Year (Kossow); a three-game sweep in the East District Tournament to send the Vikings to the College World Series; Poggi breaking the single-season record for hits (83); and to top it all off, the win against #9 Kellogg at the World Series was the first win at the National Tournament in school and Region 15 (D2) history!
 
Game 1: 5/25 12-0 Loss vs. #5 St. Johns River State College
 
The Vikings, seeded at #12, would take on the fifth overall seed St. Johns River State College in the second game to open the 2024 National Tournament. Westchester would open the top of the first with a Tommy Poggi base hit but would ultimately end with a scoreless half. Jackson Kossow would be on the bump for SUNY WCC and got two quick outs before St. Johns would get back-to-back singles plating two runs. Unfortunately, Westchester's bats would go cold the rest of the game. St. Johns River would plate seven in the bottom half of the second to take a commanding 9-0 lead. They would score three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 12-0 lead. Westchester could not respond, and the game ended after five innings of play due to the mercy rule.
Hope was not lost, however. The Vikings were in this same situation 10 years prior, losing to Madison via the mercy rule and coming out game 2 with bats ready to explode with a great performance against Northern Oklahoma College – Enid.
 
Game 2: 5/27 10-6 Win vs. #8 Kellogg CC
 
With their backs against the wall, SUNY WCC came ready to play against the 8^th-seeded Bears of Kellogg CC. Michael Dawson would be on the mound for the Vikings and would start off the game with a scoreless first inning. Once again Tommy Poggi would lead off the game with a single in the bottom half of the first. A walk to AJ Falciglia and Hit By Pitch to Mike Tiseo would load the bases up for Nick Vendola. Poggi would score on the fielders choice putting the Vikings up 1-0 heading into the second. Westchester would tack on their second run of the ball game in the bottom half of the second thanks to a Poggi ground out scoring Gavin Carlucci. Dawson would continue to cruise through three innings not allowing a run, until the Bears would wake up their bats in the top of the fourth. A single and a walk would come before a three-run homerun by Winger put Kellogg ahead 3-2 going into the bottom of the fourth. Westchester would tie the game up at three thanks to a Carlucci sac fly scoring Brandon Hernandez. Dawson would settle down in the top of the fifth with a 1-2-3 inning. That would set up SUNY WCC to take the lead back in the bottom half of the inning. Three consecutive singles by Marc Stockhausen, AJ Falciglia, and Mike Tiseo who would plate Stock would get the Vikings going early before a Vendola flyout and Hernandez double play would end the inning.
Kellogg would not go down quietly in the sixth. The Bears would tie the game at four thanks to an RBI single scoring an unearned run. Both teams would stay quiet until the bottom of the seventh. Poggi would draw a leadoff walk followed by at Stockhausen RBI-triple would put the Vikings ahead 5-4. Stock would score off of a Nick Vendola single putting Westchester up by two. Up came Gavin Carlucci with two outs and he would line a two-RBI single scoring both Vendola and Tiseo who got on via an error. Westchester would now lead the Bears 8-4 heading into the late innings. Back-to-back doubles off of relief pitcher Wyatt Triestman inched the score to 8-5 in favor of the Vikings and in came AJ Falciglia to close the door. AJ would give up a Sac Fly to plate a run but would ultimately end the threat from Kellogg. The Vikings would plate two more to extend their lead to 10-6 thanks to a Sac Fly from Tiseo and a steal home from Stockhausen. Falciglia would have an eventless top-half of the ninth to seal the victory for Westchester.
The win, would be the first World Series victory in program history and the first time a Mid-Hudson Conference school would get a win in Enid, Oklahoma.
 
Game 3: 10-0 Loss vs. #9 Des Moines Area CC
 
Coming off the thrilling victory the day before, the Vikings were eager to continue to make some waves at the National Tournament. They would take on the 9^th-seeded Bears of Des Moines Area CC in an elimination game. Wyatt Triestman would be on the bump for Westchester as he looked to carry the team forward. After an uneventful two innings, the Bears would score first thanks to a wall-scraping homerun just over the reach of left-fielder Marc Stockhausen. The score would remain 2-0 in favor of Des Moines until the top of the fourth where the Bears would tack on two more runs off of relief pitcher Mark Yorio.
The Westchester bats just could not get going at the right time. In the top of the fifth, DMACC would add five runs to break the game open to a 9-0 lead. A mercy rule game would now be in jeopardy against the Vikings. After an uneventful bottom half to the fifth, the Bears would add their 10^th run in the top of the sixth. Coming into the bottom half of the inning, the Vikings desperately needed a run to continue the game. After a Mike Tiseo groundout, Nick Vendola would single and steal second putting Westchester in a great opportunity to score. After a wild pitch would put him on third, Westchester could not convert popping out twice to first base ending the game.
 
Westchester would be led by Marc Stockhausen who hit .375 with three runs scored and an RBI in the Vikings three games out in Oklahoma. Not to mention, Nick Vendola would hit .428 with a run scored and two RBIs. Michael Dawson would pitch six innings with three earned runs while scattering five hits and striking out four and AJ Falciglia would earn his second save of the season.
 
As the season comes to a close, a few ironic similarities in stats to compare to the 2014 World Series Participating Team:

• Record: 32-19 (2024) | 33-17 (2014)
• Conference Record: 8-4 (2024) | 11-7 (2014)
• Batting Average: .316 (2024) | .337 (2014)
• Hits: 429 (2024) | 512 (2014)
• Earned Run Average: 4.79 (2024) | 4.02 (2014)

 
Thank you to all who continuously supported the Vikings throughout the regular season, post season, and at the National Tournament! Westchester is eager to get right back to work in hopes to return to Oklahoma for the 2025 season.