Vikes Salvage Split

BBCC baseball opened up conference play by traveling not once but twice due to weather to Pendleton, OR to take on the Blue Mountain Community College Timberwolves.

Game one began but was quickly postponed after two innings to the following day due to rain. Hunter Gibson was handed the ball for game one and did his thing, tossing 7 quality innings but was a victim of poor defense resulting in 5 runs throughout the course of his outing handing Gibson his first loss of the season. The Viking bats were quiet as they only managed to scratch across two runs in the final inning while striking out a season high of 15 times, resulting in a disappointing 5-2 loss. 

Hoping to bounce back in game two, Tim Williams got the start. Williams fell victim to a similar fate as Gibson in game one with some shaky defensive play. After giving up 5 runs in the second inning Williams managed to settle in tossing the remainder of the game going 8 innings, striking out 8 and only surrendering one earned run. The Viking offense slowly chipped away at the 5 run deficit but was unable to capitalize resulting in a 5-4 loss with offensive contributions from Jett Nelson as he collected 3 more hits totaling 5 on the day along with Kyler Nelson launching his first collegiate home run. 

The Vikes then returned home for the final two games of the series hoping to break even. Hayden Schooler was handed the ball and gave the Vikings the start that they needed, tossing 6 innings of one run baseball with another double digit strike out performance racking up 10. Jett Nelson continued swinging a hot stick collecting another two hits and driving in two along with Parker Plato and Ben Schnurman also getting two knocks a piece and driving in three combined. Solid pitching and enough offense led the Vikes to a W with a score of 5-3.

Looking to walk away with a split, BBCC handed the ball to Austin McQuilliams who put together another solid outing throwing four innings of 2 run baseball setting the tone and letting the offense take care of the rest. Kalia Agustin led the way going 3-3 with a home run and a double while scoring three times and driving in four, along with Kai Jones going 3-4 while scoring twice and driving in one. With Agustin and Jones putting together a hitting clinic, the offensive explosion was capped off with Parker Plato, Ben Schnurman, Dalton Miller, Andrew Aitken and Tyler Balkenbush adding in two hits a piece leading the Vikes to a 15-8 victory.

BBCC get set to take on Spokane Falls on Wednesday April 5th at home followed by heading to Spokane on April 8th to wrap up the series. Come out and support the Vikes!