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# Samohi sweeps Inglewood Vikings improve to 4-0 in league play
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/samohi-sweeps-inglewood-vikings-improve-to-4-0-in-league-play/
- Published: 2008-04-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:19:31.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Sports, Downtown, #archive-import

*Samohi looks ahead to Redondo Tournament*

*By JON HABER Special to the Daily Press*

DOWNTOWN The Santa Monica High School Vikings baseball team completed a two-game sweep Thursday against the Inglewood Sentinels (7-6, 1-3). Thursday’s win — Samohi’s fifth in six games — brought the Vikings back to.500 (10-10) and kept the team undefeated in Ocean League play (4-0).

The sweep dropped Inglewood’s record to 7-6 overall and 1-3 in league play. The Sentinels have lost six of their last seven games.

In the final game of the series, Samohi defeated the Sentinels 22-4 behind strong starting pitching from Paul Salazar and an offensive output that resulted more from Inglewood’s poor defense than the Vikings’ offense.

A parade of Sentinel passed balls and wild pitches led to a quick four-run lead for the Vikings in the first inning. Samohi continued to tack on runs, and by the end of the third, the team had built a double digit lead.

Although the team managed to plate 22 runs, Samohi head coach Rob Duron felt the score was more indicative of Inglewood’s subpar performance rather than his hitters’ approach in the batter’s box.

“We ended up having 12 strike outs \[Thursday\], and that’s not making an adjustment,” Duron said about his team’s approach at the plate. “It was a big win, a big score, but \[the hitting approach\] definitely puts it in a different light as to how it happened.

“Our hitting needs to make adjustments and say ‘OK, we’re going to use the whole ballpark.’ If we do that, we can compete with anybody.”

Alex Kovacs shined, going 2 for 4 with two doubles, four runs batted in and two runs scored. Tyler Skaggs also hit a double, drove in two and scored two runs.

While the offense kept putting runs on the board, Samohi’s pitching — which has been consistent all year — kept the Sentinels in check from pitch one.Salazar started the game and pitched four innings, struck out four, walked three and allowed one earned run.

“Salazar’s been solid … He’s tough. He throws strikes, he throws hard, and he’s got a good split,” Duron said. “He’s always throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters. That’s the key at any level.”

Will Dickinson came on in relief for Salazar in the fifth inning and pitched one inning, allowing three earned runs and two walks. Nick Lerner tossed the last two innings and struck out three.

After the blow-out victory, Duron feels his team is still lacking the mentality it needs to continue to be successful in all aspects of the game.

“All \[good\] teams have that attitude that we’re always going to come after you, and we don’t have that yet,” he said. “The difference is the kids have to bring that attitude out there and work hard. At some point, somebody needs to say ‘hey, we want to do this.’”

Samohi’s victory followed a pitchers’ duel Tuesday in the opening game of the series. The Vikings won the game 2-0 behind a 13 strike-out, two-hit, complete game shutout by Skaggs.

“Skaggs pitched really well,” Duron said. “He was in command right from the beginning, and he made some nice defensive plays off the mound.”

The game was deadlocked at zero in the fifth inning before Samohi’s Ricky Gomez scored on a fielder’s choice. The Vikings added an insurance run in the sixth on Kovac’s RBI double.

The Sentinels put a rally together in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with one out. But Skaggs reached back to strike out the last two batters to end the game.

The Vikings look to match their season-high winning streak of three games Saturday against Chaminade in the fourth game of the Redondo Tournament. Samohi will send out Logan Witchurch, whose last start came in a winning effort against El Segundo March 15.

Duron said in order for Samohi to win the game, they will need to once again rely on good starting pitching, and the offense will need to “hit the ball.”

First pitch is set to be thrown at 11 a. m. at Samohi.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041908.pdf?ref=smdp.com)