Sluggish Start To Conference Continues

After dropping a tough game two to CBC, BBCC entered a pivotal series as they hosted the Blue Mountain Community College Timberwolves on Wednesday April 3rd at Viking Field.

As per usual, BBCC handed the ball to sophomore pitcher Hayden Schooler in game one. After recording the first two outs of the game, Blue Mountain managed to string back to back hits together including a 2-run homerun to give BMCC an early 2-0 lead. After a bumpy first inning, Schooler settled in tossing 7 innings of 3 run ball allowing 2 earned runs while punching out 9 and not walking a batter. With Schooler keeping the Timberwolves in check, the BBCC offense went to work. Entering the 7th inning down 3-1 BBCC erupted for a 5 run inning courtesy of a bases loaded double by Ben Schnurman that plated all three Viking base runners. Now up 6-3, BBCC handed the ball to freshman right hander Dylan Schaefer. Schaefer, who has been lights out up to this point gave up two in the 8th and a single run in the 9th resulting in a tie ball game after 9 innings. After a scoreless tenth, the Timberwolves managed to score 3 runs off of Nolan Soderstrom in the 11th while BBCC was only able to scratch 1 across in the bottom half resulting in a heartbreaking loss by a score of 9-7. The Viking offense appeared to be finding their stride with Rory Swanson, Ben Schnurman, Gunnar Graves and JT Penrod all collecting two hits. Although the the Vikes pitched and swung it well, the defense proved yet again to be the weak link as a number of defensive miscues led to critical runs in favor of BMCC. 

Garin Gurlter was handed the ball for game two and continued to throw the ball well. Gurtler, who has fallen victim to poor defensive play behind him has continued to give his team an opportunity to win despite navigating unwarranted base runners. After surrendering 4 runs over the first two innings, Gurtler buckled down tossing up three consecutive zeros and giving up a single run in the 6th to wrap up his outing with a line of 6 innings, 3 earned runs and 6 strikeouts. After 6 complete inning the Vikes found themselves down 5-4 with nine outs to play with. BMCC managed to score one run in the 7th and one in the 8th to stretch the lead to 7-4 but Big Bend matched the single in the bottom of the 8th and entered the final inning down 2 runs. The Vikes scratched on across in the 9th and had the tieing run at first with two outs but were unable to score resulting in another one run loss with a final score of 7-6. Head Coach Chase Tunstall had this to say after two tough losses at home. 

"The start of conference play hasn't exactly started how we anticipated or how we wanted it to start. We just have to play better. Plain and simple. Especially on the defensive side of things as well as the base paths. We continue to beat ourselves and that's something that needs to be turned around quickly. Hopefully we can find a way to right the ship from top to bottom.

BBCC prepares to head down to Blue Mountain Community College to finish up the series with a double header at 1:00 and 4:00 in Pendleton, OR. 

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