MENTONE - The Triton Trojans have started up where they left off last year. Last year's team showed a great offense with timely hitting and solid pitching. This year's team has done the same through the first two games of the season. After defeating Oregon-Davis in the season opener 18-0, the Trojans hammered away at the Valley Vikings Monday to the tune of 17-5.

Triton pounded out 17 hits off of three Valley pitchers and held the Vikings at a comfortable distance from the third inning on. Jeff Salisbury's and Justin Grubbs' combined effort held Valley to just five hits and five runs despite five Triton errors.

"We're not hitting the ball right now," Valley head coach Pat O'Connell said. "We need to go back to the fundamentals. Our defense seems to make a few silly mental mistakes and then it all crashes down."

The Trojans scored one run in each of the first two innings off of pitcher Jason Smith, but Valley wasn't ready to die just yet.

Orville Haney got a one-out base hit and Richie Swanson followed that up by getting on first after a passed ball on a strikeout. After Seth Mikel struck out, Smith helped out his pitching cause with a double that scored two runs and tied the game at 2-2 after two innings.

In the third inning, Triton began to pull away. Derek Ganshorn doubled, Kyle Gould singled to drive in Ganshorn and Salisbury singled to plate Gould. After Matt Wanemacher popped out, Matt Savill walked. Eric Miller and Nate Setser followed with singles that finished the third inning scoring with four runs on the board.

In the bottom of the third, Matt Bose drove the third pitch of the inning over the left field wall to cut the deficit to three runs, but the Vikings never got any closer.

Triton put together five runs in the fourth on four hits and three runs in the fifth to get a 14-5 lead. The Trojans finished off the scoring with a three-run seventh.

Kyle Gould led Triton with five hits in the game, four RBIs and four runs scored. Ganshorn homered and drove in two runs for the Trojans. Schuyler Stutzman went 2-for-3 and scored three times.

"Our pitching let up tonight," O'Connell said. "Jason (Smith) and Seth Mikel didn't have their control tonight. We used all of our pitching at Elkhart this weekend. But we're not down and out yet. We'll be back."

For Valley, Bose and Haney were the only Valley players with two hits. Bose added two RBIs on the homer and Haney scored twice.

Triton (2-0) will be at Caston on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Valley (1-3) has now lost three in a row after winning its first game of the season. The Vikings will be at Northfield on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]