West Valley baseball coach Rick Wiens will be sending out engraved game invitations to Cole Murchison's mother after the freshman first baseman lit up Hartnell pitching as Diane Murchison, visiting from Canada, watched from the stands in Salinas.
Murchison had four of West Valley's nine hits, including an RBI single, a one-run double and a two-run homer in the Vikings 5-2 non-conference win. It was West Valley's third straight win with two preseason games remaining before Coast-North action starts next week.
The Vikings (7-8) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Murchison singled in Kyle Riveron who had doubled. Murchison struck again in the third with a two-out double that drove in Tyler Schrader, who had singled to open the inning.
The Panthers (5-8) cut the WVC lead to 3-2 in the sixth, setting the stage for more Murchison heroics in the seventh. Henry Wright reached on a one-out single and came home on Murchison's second home run of 2020 to make it 5-2.
Viking reliever Chas Brown kept Hartnell scoreless on two singles in the seventh and eighth to set things up for closer Matt Atencio, who set the Panthers down in order in the ninth to end it.
West Valley closes out the non-league schedule Thursday with a 2pm game against Gavilan (2-11) at Valhalla and Saturday at Cabrillo with a 1pm game with the Seahawks (9-5).