Kingston struggled to string hits together and couldn’t contain North Kitsap’s offense, leading to a 9-0 Viking win over the Buccaneers April 23 in Poulsbo.

The two rivals also played the night before April 22, with NK beating Kingston 6-0. The Vikings currently sit in second place in the Olympic League at 9-1, one game back of first place Bainbridge, which is 10-0 in league. The two teams will play twice in May before the regular season ends. With the loss, Kingston fell to second-to-last place in league at 3-7.

“Ya know, (our) starting pitcher [Tate Stearns] did a good job of throwing strikes for the most part,” NK coach Jeff Weible said.

Stearns made quick work of the Kingston lineup in the top of the first, forcing a strikeout and a double play on six pitches. Bucs freshman starting pitcher Vaka Tameilau responded by earning two strikeouts and a groundout in the bottom of the inning.

NK scored first by an RBI double from Chase McDaniel, scoring Nolan Wendt. The Vikings added on a few more runs to make the score 4-0 by the end of the second.

“Don’t swing at junk was pretty much the mindset coming into this game,” Viking Greyson Prichard said. “Just see a lot of pitches and seal up.”

NK managed to get two men on base in the bottom of the fourth, but couldn’t drive a run in after McDaniel and Nolan Rowe were able to get on base via a pair of singles.

Tameilau was taken out of the game in the bottom of the fifth and replaced with freshman Ethan Hackett, who forced two flyouts but let up a double to Blake Sohlberg, giving NK its first opportunity to score since the second inning. The Viking scored another run on a wild pitch, increasing the Vikings’ lead to five.

NK relief pitcher Ryan Enright took over for Stearns in the top of the sixth, dealing 14 pitches and retiring three Buccaneer batters.

The Vikings tacked on a few more runs over the last few innings to seal the win.

“We’ve had troubles this year leaving a lot of guys on bases, and that’s because we just can’t string two hits in a row together,” Kingston coach Darrin Dotson said.