Opening the high school baseball season with a preseason ranking of seventh in Class 2 from the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association (MHSBCA), Tyler Shalbot’s Vienna Eagles hosted Waynesville and Lincoln Saturday in Maries County.

Starting a long day of baseball against Waynesville’s Tigers, Vienna fell behind 1-0 going into the bottom of the fourth after playing through three scoreless innings.

Plating two runs in the bottom halves of the fourth and fifth inning, Shalbot’s Eagles opened the 2019 season with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Tigers.

Facing a 1-0 deficit at the midway point of the game, Vienna entered the bottom of the fourth inning looking to push a run across after leaving five runners on base during the first three innings.

Dylan Buschmann was hit by a pitch with one out before a ground out advanced him to third base with two outs.

With Trenton Rowden at the plate, a Waynesville balk allowed Buschmann to score tying the game at 1-1.

Drawing a four-pitch walk, Rowden later scored on a Levi Messersmith RBI single giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead through four innings.

In the top half of the fifth inning, Waynesville turned two walks and a double into a run knotting the game back up at 2-2 moving to the bottom half of the fifth.

Seeing the bottom of the lineup do damage the previous inning, it was up to the top of Vienna’s batting order to break the 2-2 tie.

Logan Agan walked to lead off the inning before advancing to third base on a Gavin Stricklan double to the left-field corner.

Batting fourth in the clean-up spot of the lineup, McCrae Fuller needed just one pitch to show why he was put there.

Hitting a single up the middle, Fuller drove in both Agan and Stricklan giving the Eagles a 4-2 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the game.

Limiting Waynesville to one base runner the rest of the game, Agan, Fuller and Stricklan combined to pitch a one-hitter while striking out 10 Waynesville batters.

Fuller pitched the middle three innings for the win while Stricklan earned the save pitching the final two innings.

Following Waynesville’s 7-2 victory over the Lincoln Cardinals in game two of the Saturday tripleheader, the host Eagles took on the Cardinals looking to start their young season at 2-0.

Blowing the game wide open with an eight-run fourth inning, Vienna went on to shut out the Cardinals 13-0 in five innings who came in ranked just ahead of Vienna at sixth in the MHSBCA Class 2 preseason baseball rankings.

Pitching around two walks and a hit batter leaving the bases loaded, Vienna went to work in the bottom half of the first inning looking to break the scoreless tie.

Sutton Hauck led off with a walk before Agan was hit by a pitch. Stricklan was then hit by another pitch to load the bases with nobody out for Fuller.

Looping a single to center field, Fuller drove in Hauck and Agan giving the Eagles an early 2-0 lead after one inning.

Agan struck again in the bottom of the second inning with a two-run home run doubling the Vienna lead to 4-0 after two frames.

Keeping Lincoln off the scoreboard in the top of the third inning, Fuller walked and scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the third inning for a 5-0 lead.

With their shutout in tact through three and a half innings, Vienna put the game away in the bottom of the fourth inning behind another two-run homer from Buschmann as part of an eight-run inning.

Pitching around four walks and three hit batters, Hauck and Buschmann combined to pitch a no-hitter in Vienna’s second victory of the day Saturday on their home diamond.