After a crushing home defeat to Cosumnes River in extra innings in the last game of the season, DVC finished third in the Big 8 Conference and slipped to the No. 10 seed in the Northern California playoffs.

The Vikings lost three of their last four games to fall from a three-way tie for first with Sierra and defending conference champion Sacramento City.

DVC was in sole position of first place on April 15 before a loss to Sierra knocked them out.

DVC travels to Solano today for the first game of their first-round, best-of-three series vs. Solano.

Their second game will be the following day, and so will the third and final game, if necessary.

The Vikings are in a familiar position, having been the No. 11 seed in last year’s playoffs, only to upset then-No. 6 seed San Mateo in three games and advance to the second round. They were ousted in losses to then- No. 1 seeded Sacramento City and No. 5 seeded West Valley.

For the first round of the Northern California playoffs the higher seed will host all three games of the best of three series.

The second round of the Northern California playoffs is a two-bracket, round-robin, double-elimination tournament in which the highest remaining seed will host all of the games.

The two winners of the brackets will move on to the state tournament, where they will face the winning teams of the Southern California playoffs.

The Vikings are led by first baseman Mike Gonzales, who finished the regular season with a .377 batting average. He was first in Northern California in slugging percentage and led the state in home runs with 18.

DVC also has a dominant pitcher in Doug Murray, who finished the season with an 8-2 record and a 2.73 ERA. And there is Taylor Stanton, who only has a 5-5 record but has struck out 76 hitters.

Still, the Vikings must find a way to neutralize Solano’s Tommy Pavesi, Northern California’s lead hitter, with a .458 batting average and 63 RBI’s.

Pavesi also finished in the top three in Northern California in slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits, home runs, and total bases, while also leading Solano with 13 stolen bases.

Solano also sports a pair of pitchers – Dustin Crenshaw and Ryan Shook – with ERA’s of 2.18 and 2.83 respectively.

Crenshaw has a record of 9-2 with 72 strikeouts, while Shook has a 7-2 record with 70 strikeouts.