BANGOR – It wasn’t the best possible prelude to Saturday’s twinight baseball doubleheader with winless Schenck of East Millinocket for the Searsport Vikings.

The inexperienced Vikes limped in with a 3-4 record, the pitching staff was young and thin, many of the players had already played a nine-inning JV game Saturday morning, and their No. 2 pitcher was due to make his first start in weeks after returning from academic ineligibility.

If that wasn’t enough, Searsport lost its best, most experienced player in center fielder/cleanup hitter Ben Relyea for both games after Relyea was ejected for a hard collision with Schenck’s catcher in the first inning of the opener.

Rather than fold up like a Red Lobster franchise in Maine, the Vikings’ young starters responded well to the adversity behind two masterful efforts on the mound and swept the twinbill with a 5-2 victory in the first game and an emphatic 17-0 verdict in the second at a breezy, chilly Mansfield Stadium.

“I was kind of worried how we’d do without Relyea in the lineup, but they really responded well,” said first-year Vikings head coach Tom DiBenedetto.

In the first game, Relyea was ejected after ripping a shot deep to right center to drive in the game’s first run. Relyea reached third and never broke stride as the throw came from the outfield. The throw was wide down the first base line and Schenck catcher Chad McLaughlin lunged right. Relyea hit home plate and slammed into McLaughlin.

Umpires Tom Shepard and Charlie Reid called Relyea for the third out of the inning and ejected him for not trying to avoid the fielder in the jarring collision. McLaughlin eventually got up, but was woozy and had trouble breathing. McLaughlin, who Schenck coach Ed Dempsey said had a punctured lung, was taken to Bangor’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, where officials said he was doing well and may be discharged in a day or two.

Schenck still held a 2-1 lead, thanks to three straight, one-out singles and a Viking error in the first, but Searsport tied it up in the second via back-to-back errors.

Searsport made it 4-2 in the fourth on leadoff singles by Spencer Garton and Drew Mercier, Wes Smith’s sacrifice fly, and Jerod Kronholm’s RBI double. The Vikings added an insurance run in the fifth on Mercier’s RBI single.

Key for the Vikings was the effort of righthander Nick Dakin, who threw 64 of his 87 pitches for strikes and scattered eight hits over seven innings while walking no batters, hitting one, and striking out five. The freshman, one of five who start, improved to 1-1 in his first outing in two weeks.

“It didn’t take me very long to get going, just a few pitches maybe,” said Dakin, who was reinstated Friday. “I stayed in shape by throwing about 60 pitches a day to our catcher at home.”

In the second game, a nightmarish third inning broke the game wide open as the Vikings sent 18 batters to the plate, scoring 12 runs on nine hits, two walks, and seven errors. Ten of the runs were unearned.

“After that inning where everything snowballed, we were never the same,” said Dempsey.

Searsport scored three more uneared runs in a four-run fifth featuring Robert Johnson’s pinch-hit, two-run, inside-the-park homer.

“I’m just forgetting that game and the team will too,” said Dempsey. “Our pitchers threw well, but you can’t win when you give up 15 unearned runs.”

Left fielder Marcus Quisenberry led the Vikings attack by going 3-for-4 with a triple and four RBIs. Pasco Grove (three singles, RBI) yielded just one hit, Pat Jamo’s single through the shortstop gap.

Searsport’s junior righty threw 43 of 63 pitches for strikes while walking none and fanning eight.

“I’ve been modifying my windup a lot and I just had a lot more heat on my fastball,” Grove said. “My curve was working alright today too. It was mostly location and pushing the fastball by them.”

Vikings 5, Wolverines 2

(Saturday’s First Game)

Schenck Searsport

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Hamlin, p 4 0 1 0 Kronholm, c 4 1 1

Jamo, ss 4 0 1 0 Quisenberry, rf 4 0 0

Dempsey, 2b-c 4 1 1 0 a-Moran 0 0 0

DeSantis, cf 3 1 2 1 Grove, 1b 4 0 0

Osborne, 1b-2b 3 0 1 0 Relyea, cf 1 1

Fayle, lf 3 0 2 0 Rogers, cf 2 0 0

Hebert, 3b 2 0 0 0 Mercer, lf 3 2 0

Watson, rf 1 0 0 0 Garton, ss 3 1 0

Lee, rf 2 0 0 0 Mercier, 3b 3 1 1

McLaughlin, c 0 0 0 0 Smith, 2b 1 1

Grant, c 1 0 0 0 Rainey, dh 2 0 0

Dickinson, 1b 2 0 0 0 Dakin, p 1 0

Totals 29 2 8 1 Totals 28 5 6 4

a-ran for Quisenberry in the sixth

Schenck 200 000 0 ? 2

Searsport 110 210 x ? 5

E? Jamo, Osborne, Hebert; Smith; LOB? Schenck 7; Searsport 7; 2B? Kronholm; 3B? DeSantis, Relyea; DP? Mercier-Smith-Grove; SB? Fayle; Kronholm, Smith, Grove

Schenck IP H R ER BB SO

Hamlin (L,0-3) 6 6 5 3 1 4

Searsport IP H R ER BB SO

Dakin (W,1-1) 7 8 2 1 0 5

HBP? Fayle by Dakin, Hebert by Dakin; WP? Dakin; BK? Hamlin; PB? Dempsey; T? 1:58

Vikings 17, Wolverines 0

(Saturday’s Second Game)

Searsport (5-4) Schenck (0-7)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Brazier, 2b 3 1 1 1 Hamlin, ss-c 2 0 0

Smith, 2b 1 3 1 0 Jamo, p-ss 2 0 0

Quisenberry, lf 4 2 3 4 Watson, rf 0 0

Hruby, lf 1 0 1 0 Dempsey, c 0 0 0

Grove, p 5 2 3 1 Osborne, ss 0 0 0

Kronholm, c 4 1 0 1 Lee, cf 1 0 0 0

Mercer, cf 4 1 2 1 DeSantis, cf-p 2 0 0

Garton, ss 2 1 0 1 Fayle, lf 1 0 0

Mercier, 3b 2 0 0 0 Dickinson, 1b 1 0 0

a-Davis 1 1 0 0 Grant, 1b-3b 2 0 0

Dakin, dh 3 1 1 2 Coon, 2b 2 0 0

Johnson, rf 1 1 1 2 Violette, 3b-ss 2 0 0

Larrabee, 1b 3 1 2 0 Pelkey, rf-lf 1 0 0

b-Moran 0 1 0 0

Manner, 1b 1 1 1 0

Totals 35 17 16 13 Totals 16 0 1 0

a-reached on passed ball (strikeout) for Mercier in the fifth, b-ran for Larrabee in the third

Searsport 00(12) 14 ? 17

Schenck 00 0 00 ? 0

E? Kronholm; Hamlin 2, Osborne 3, Grant 2, Coon 2; LOB? Searsport 8, Schenck 2; 2B? Smith; 3B? Quisenberry; HR? Johnson (1); SB? Quisenberry, Garton, Kronholm

Searsport IP H R ER BB SO

Grove, (W,3-2) 5 1 0 0 0 8

Schenck IP H R ER BB SO

Jamo (L,0-2) 2? 10 12 2 1 4

DeSantis 2? 6 5 2 3 7

HBP? Dempsey by Grove; WP? DeSantis 4; PB? Kronholm, Hamlin; T? 1:52; ATT? 68