The Siuslaw Vikings fell to No. 23 in the OSAA Class 4A baseball rankings Thursday morning, despite an 8-3 victory Wednesday at Cottage Grove.

Still, the Vikings are in a good position to claim one of the 24 invitations to the playoffs next week when rankings freeze at 10 p.m. Monday.

Siuslaw improved to 9-14 overall and 4-9 in the Sky-Em League with the win over the Lions. Cottage Grove fell to 2-21 and 0-13.

The Vikings close regular-season play Friday with a home doubleheader against Marshfield. First pitch at Jiggs Dodson Field is 3 p.m.

Wednesday, Andrew Jensen-Norman picked up the win in long relief, while Jason Garza pitched the seventh, striking out the side.

"The pitching perfomances from all three of our pitchers was very good," Siuslaw coach Tom Shinn said. "We were limiting pitchers to 45 pitches so we had enough arms for Friday's doubleheader.

"Andrew was very economical, getting 3 1/3 innings on just 42 pitches."

Jensen-Norman had five strikeouts, while Garcia and starter Ethan Halpin three each.

The Vikings jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and were on top 7-0 entering the bottom of the fifth.

The Lions pushed three runs across after two outs on an error and three consecutive singles.

Siuslaw had seven hits in the game, two each by Beau Erickson, Isaac Garza and Ethan Halpin.

Erickson was 2-for-4 with two runs and a double, Garza 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI and Halpin 2-for-4 with a run and two RBIs. Ian Sissel was 1-for-3 with a run and two RBIs.

"I was pleased with our approach at the plate," Shinn said. "One point of emphasis for us lately has been to limit strikeouts and put the ball in play. We did that today with only four strikeouts."

The Vikings had two errors to six by the Lions.

"Defensively we played a pretty solid baseball game as well," Shinn said.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

Siuslaw would have a rematch with Mazama next week if current standings and rankings hold, the Vikings as the C7 road team and No. 9 Mazama as the B2 host team. 

Siuslaw lost 9-2 at Mazama in the third game of the season, which saw the Vikings get off to a 5-1 start.

No. 24 McLoughlin plays No. 29 Ontario in a doubleheader Friday for a play-in game as the third-place team in Greater Oregon League.

No. 25 Seaside (7-11) has two games to play, a home and away series with No. 1-ranked Banks.

No. 26 Phoenix (6-15) also has two games to play, a doubleheader at home Friday against No. 2-ranked Hidden Valley.

Sweet Home is No. 27 and Molalla No. 28, each with unimpressive 5-16 records.

The eight automatic qualifiers (A1 through A8) have byes into the 16-team championship bracket.

The B1 through B8 teams — four league runner-ups and the top four third-place teams — wll host play-in games.

The C1 through C8 teams play on the road and include the remaining two third-place teams and six teams based on final rankings.

IGNORE COLLEY AT YOUR FOLLY

OSAA rankings are computed adding the Ratings Percentage Indiex (RPI) and the Colley Bias Free Rating Method (Colley).

Siuslaw currently has an RPI of 25 and a Colley of 21, for a total of 46.

No. 25 Seaside (27+24), No. 26 Phoenix (26+25) and No. 27 Sweet Home (24+27) are each at 51. 

No. 21 Sisters (23+22) and No. 22 Astoria (22+23) are each at 45.

Colley is given more weight in breaking ties.

For more information, go online at https://www.osaa.org/help/rankings

SIUSLAW                 302 200 1 — 8  7  2
COTTAGE GROVE  000 030 0 — 3  4  6
Ethan Halpin, Andrew Jensen-Norman (3), Jason Garcia (7) and Jason Garcia, Beau Erickson (7); Braeden Buckland, Christian Spear (5) and JJ Thornton.
WP — Andrew Jensen-Norman. LP — Braeden Buckland.