Three hours after a walk-off sent them to the parking lot in silence, the Vikings drove across Temecula and answered with their loudest first inning of the trip.

Justin Gaisford wore a pitch, Tyler Wertz reached on an error, and Zach Davis lined a two-run single ahead of Ripken Ely's RBI knock. Then, with two outs and runners at the corners, Davis broke for the plate on the double steal and slid home: the first Valencia steal of home in the fall record, and a 4-0 lead against a Great Oak starter whose radar readings touched 91.

Great Oak clawed back within one, but the third inning turned on a single throw: with the tying run dancing off third, Carter Bennett fired to Charlie Romanelli covering the plate to catch Wes Shanabarger stealing home. Valencia restarted the engine from there, Ely's second RBI single in the fourth and Dylan Lapa's run-scoring knock in the fifth, even as Jack Yamamura was cut down at home on the return relay.

The rest belonged to Tee Intharachalit. In the longest outing of his captured career, 4.1 innings, he allowed two hits, faced sixteen batters, and handed Great Oak nothing until a run in the last of the seventh, then watched Ely squeeze the final two fly balls in right. Two pitchers, and a 3-1 travel weekend in the books.