Visiting Vanden broke open a close game with a six-run fifth inning and went on to beat Benicia High’s varsity baseball team, 9-2, in a key Solano County Athletic Conference game Wednesday.

It was Vanden’s second decisive victory over Benicia in two meetings this year and gave the Vikings – who have never won a SCAC championship – a commanding lead in the SCAC standings midway through the season.

“They’ve beaten us twice now pretty handily,” Benicia manager Jim Bowles said of the Vikings (12-5, 7-1 SCAC). “There’s no arguing they’re the best team in the league right now. They put pressure on us all day and played a great game while we played an average game.”

The Vikings scored early against Benicia (10-8, 4-4 SCAC). Enos Evans led off the game by getting hit by a Cole Eigenhuis pitch, and after Alejandro Lara singled, Evans scored from third when Lara was thrown out trying to steal second by catcher Ethan Payne.

Benicia answered with two runs in the bottom half. Jason Toumbs walked on a 3-2 pitch with two outs, Isiah Saguar singled and Xian Covington-Hunt delivered a two-run double to left to make it 2-1.

Vanden tied it in the top of the fourth when Lara led off with a triple and scored on a Tyler Reames sacrifice fly. Taylor Greene led off the fourth with a double for Benicia but was stranded.

The Vikings took complete control in the fifth. Winning pitcher Benji Gutierrez led off with a double, and an infield single and two walks forced home a run. Reames added his second sacrifice fly of the day, Jared Vitug scored on a wild pitch, and singles by Petey Torres, Hadari Wadley and Eric Robles broke the game open.

“We looked good early but then we couldn’t do anything after that,” Bowles said. “Vanden is hungry and is having a good year. We’re not ready to concede first place yet, but we need to find a way to get some sort of momentum going on our side our we’ll be fighting just to get into the playoffs.”

Gutierrez went all seven innings for the Vikings and scattered seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Eigenhuis pitched into the fifth before needing relief help from Evan Phillips and Niko Leon Guerrero.

Caleb Van Blake went 2-for-3 for the Panthers, who have dropped two straight after winning three in a row.

The Panthers will try to avoid a season sweep when they play at Vanden on Friday.

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