Maries County bragging rights and a Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) baseball title.

That is what was on the line back on Monday, May 8 at Vienna City Park between Belle’s Tigers and Vienna’s Eagles.

Belle was playing for an outright GVC title while Vienna was trying to create a three-way tie between themselves, the Tigers and Steelville’s Cardinals.

Seeing Belle jump out to an early 6-1 lead after one inning, the host Eagles simply did not have enough offense to answer the Tigers before falling 12-2 to Belle in a game called after three innings due to constant lightning in the area.

Blake Henry and Garrett Gehlert led the game off with consecutive singles before a Clayton Shockley RBI double allowed Henry to score.

Carter Kinkead then delivered a two-RBI single scoring Gehlert and Shockley giving Belle an early 3-0 lead.

Isaiah Sullinger then cleared the bases with a three-RBI double scoring Kinkead, Zane Strunk and Kameron Newton doubling Belle’s lead to 6-0 before Vienna’s first crack on offense.

In the bottom of the first, Vienna got a run back when Troy Wulff walked and scored on a Will Veasman RBI single leaving the Eagles trailing 6-1 after one inning.

After a scoreless second inning, Belle looked to add to their lead in the top half of the third inning.

Kaiden Robertson led the inning off being hit by a pitch before scoring on a Strunk RBI double.

A Newton walk then led to a two-RBI single for Sullinger giving him five runs batted in for the game.

Henry then doubled and scored on a Shockley RBI single.

Kinkead capped another six-run inning with a RBI single giving Belle a 12-1 lead entering the bottom of the third inning.

Now in a double-digit hole, Duncan Wilkinson tripled and scored on a Landon Kloeppel RBI ground out giving Vienna their second and final run of the game before lightning eventually halted and caused the game to be called after a nearly 90-minute delay.

Shockley earned the win for Belle pitching all three innings allowing two runs on three hits and two walks while striking out four Eagle batters.

Veasman took the loss pitching two-thirds of an inning giving up six runs (three earned) on six hits and no walks to go with one strikeout.

Belle will finally get to open MSHSAA Class 3, District 8 baseball action at Conway today (Wednesday) at 3 p.m., after action was postponed Monday and last night (Tuesday).

Vienna won their Class 2, District 8 opener Friday 5-1 over Linn at New Bloomfield and faced top-seeded Eugene yesterday (Tuesday) in the semifinals.