Tate Beran wasn’t sure that his ball was going to stay fair.

With Geneva down by one run against Batavia and the tying run on third and go-ahead run on second with two outs in the sixth inning, Beran got out in front of a pitch and sent it down the left field line.

As the ball continued to hug the line through the air, the Geneva junior hesitated in thinking that he gave his team the lead.

“At first I honestly took a slow step out of the box because I didn’t know if it was fair or not,” Beran said. “I was hoping it was fair.”

Sure enough, the baseball landed right on the foul line and scored both the tying and go-ahead run.

Beran’s two-run double proved to be the difference to help the Vikings win a back-and-forth 7-6 contest against the Bulldogs to kick off the three-game DuKane Conference rivalry series.

“It’s always good to get one back against Batavia,” said Beran, who referred to the Vikings’ 24-21 loss in OT to the Bulldogs in football. “Before the first pitch it was definitely stressful, but as the game went on, everything started to calm down and we felt in the zone.”

Beran’s go-ahead double was just his third extra-base hit of the season. And for Vikings’ coach Brad Wendell, it was more than a welcome sight to see.

“To find a line like he did, I’m just so happy for him,” Wendell said. “Tate just kept grinding, and good things happened. I’m super happy for him and for us for getting the first game of a series against a quality team.”

Matthew Martija closed the door to secure the win for the Vikings (19-3 overall, 8-2 DuKane). He allowed just two hits in 2⅓ innings with two strikeouts, including a strikeout of Ryan Rodriguez to end the game.

“He’s been great for us in relief, becoming a little bit of a closer,” Wendell said. “He’s pretty cool out there. It doesn’t get to him too much and he’s grown a lot since last year in that regard. His efforts paying off, and he’s competing real well.”

Alex Abraham gave the Vikings their first lead of the day with a two-out three-run home run in the bottom of the third inning. Ryan Kastor followed it up with a solo shot, and Aidan Hall start the fourth inning with a leadoff bomb to give Geneva a 5-2 lead.

“Them putting one out of here real early like they did, it makes it tough,” Wendell said. “But going back-to-back with two outs was great.”

The Bulldogs (9-11-1, 5-5) responded with a two-out rally of their own to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Michael Vander Luitgaren hit a two-run triple to bring Batavia within one before Ryan Rodriguez lined a two-run double to left field to give the Bulldogs a 6-5 advantage.

“We always say that no lead is safe here, even with the wind blowing in,” Bulldogs coach Alex Beckmann said. “There was a bounce here and a hit on the line there, this was a great back-and-forth rivalry game. It was fun and good to see.”

Liam Darre kicked off the game with a two-run home run in the first inning to give the Bulldogs an early advantage. Brandon Oke added two hits and Finn DePage allowed three hits and two runs over three innings of relief.

“We have a lineup that can battle all throughout, and we saw that for a bit,” Beckmann said. Finn did a real good job coming in and giving us a chance. That was probably his best outing of the year. He was attacking the zone, keeping guys off balance and we’ll look to build off that."