The Siuslaw Vikings head into the OSAA Class 4A baseball playoffs something of a dark horse, finishing. No. 19 in the final regular-season rankings.

But in the year an 80-1 shot won the Kentucky Derby, Vikings coach Tom Shinn suggests you not bet against them.

"What tonight's doubleheader shows us as a team is that we can play with anybody," Shinn said after Monday's split with No. 14-ranked Marshfield.

The Vikings were still awaiting their fate as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, but a best guess is they will be playing at No. 13 Tillamook later this week.

Ironically, Siuslaw should be looking for a rematch at Marshfield, but OSAA policy is to avoid pairing teams from the same league in the first round.

Oddly enough, there are two other league matches to unravel, No. 12 Newport and No. 21 Cascade of the Oregon West Conference and No. 13 Tillamook and No. 20 Valley Catholic of the Cowapa League.

Siuslaw finished 10-15 overall and 5-10 in the competitive Sky-Em League, which is contributing five teams to the 24-team playoffs.

All 10 league losses and four of five nonleague losses were to teams that qualified for the playoffs.

"This year we have been involved with some high-quality opponents, not just just in league, but also in nonleague games," Shinn noted.

"(No. 3-ranked) Hidden Valley who we stood toe to toe with, (No. 6) Mazama on our spring break. We have been right there with them."

Monday, Siuslaw rallied from 7-0 and 8-1 deficits to win the opener, 9-8, and gave the Pirates a good run in the nightcap before falling, 7-5.

"What a great game to be involved with," Shinn said of the big comeback in the opener. "After a very rough start, the men settled in.

"Thirteen hits for the game is a great offensive output."

Junior Noah Dotson drove in five runs in the game and sophomore Andrew Jensen-Norman tossed 4 2/3 innings of two-hit, scoreless relief for the win.

"Noah really came through at clutch times," Shinn said. "Andrew was awesome on the mound."

Dotson was 3-for-4, senior Ethan Halpin 3-for-4 with 2 runs, senior Jason Garcia 2-for-3 with 2 runs and the game-winning 2-run single and Ian Sissel 2-for-3 with 2 runs.

The Vikings were held to four singles in the nightcap, but Shinn was satisfied with the effort.

"As a team, we only had five strikeouts," he said. "We put the ball in play and made Marshfield have to make plays, which led to them raking up five errors.

"So while our ‘hits' were lower in this game, we offensively did what we have been working on."

Now they have some more work to do.