Pitching Continues To Carry

After ending the past weekend on a high note with a victory versus Blue Mountain Community College, BBCC prepared for their home opener as they hosted the Centralia Community College Trailblazers for a four game set.

To begin the weekend, the Vikes handed the ball to sophomore right hander Hayden Schooler. Schooler, who was coming off of a rough outing the weekend prior, was dialed in for his third start of the season as he tossed 7 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, while racking up a new career high 11 strikeouts before handing the ball off to freshman Nolan Soderstrom. Soderstrom continued the pitching dominance finishing off the ball game with 1 1/3 scoreless innings while punching out a pair of Trailblazers. With BBCC pitching keeping Centralia in check, it was up to the offense. The Vikes exploded for 9 runs in game one led by Oak Held and JT Penrod who both collected 3 hits and drove in 2 runs a piece. A combination of lights out pitching, solid defense and timely hitting carried the Vikes to a 9-0 victory to begin the four game set. 

Game two was not smooth sailing for the Vikes as defensive miscues came back to bite Big Bend after jumping out to an early 2-0 lead. After a three up three down top of the first followed by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom half, the wheels seemed to fall off on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Five Vikings errors followed along with six consecutive scoreless innings offensively allowed for Centralia to pull ahead by a score of 4-3 going into the 9th. After closing the gap to a one run ball game in the 8th BBCC had the opportunity to walk it off but fell short dropping game two with a final score of 4-3. 

After splitting day one, BBCC hoped to sweep the final day of the series. Sophomore pitcher Brett Nemechek got the nod in game three but fell victim to the same defensive miscues as Garin Gurtler did in game two. Game three mirrored game two with the BBCC bats struggling while making costly defensive mistakes. Nemechek managed to throw 6 1/3 innings of three run baseball while only allowing one earned run over the course of his outing while striking out four. Only collecting four hits while making four defensive errors led to Big Bend dropping game three with a final score of 7-2.

Needing a victory to not only split the series but to build momentum going into next weekend, BBCC leaned on freshman left hander Brendan McKinley. McKinley brought his "A" game tossing 6 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball while striking out 5 and only surrendering 2 hits before Bryce Laforest took over to collect the final two outs. Another scoreless outing for Big Bend pitching seemed to take the pressure off of both the offense and defense. The Viking offense collected 12 hits and scored 11 runs while playing flawless defense leading to an 11-0 mercy rule in 7 innings. Ryley Doig and Blaine Macdonald led the offense both collecting 2 hits while combining for 5 RBI's. With all nine hitters collecting at least one hit a piece, BBCC soared to a stress free victory. Head Coach Chase Tunstall had this to say regarding the weekend split.

"This past weekend showed what this team is capable of. That said, it also showed that there are some consistency issues that we need to focus on ironing out over the next two weeks. While there were times where we held ourselves back, there were also times where we took big steps forward as a team and as individuals. Our pitching kept us in every game including some incredible outings by Hayden Schooler and Brendan McKinley. Schooler showed why he is one of the top arms in this conference when he is on his A game. McKinley was able to put the team on his back and give us 6 strong innings on Sunday so we could walk away from this weekend with a split. We look forward to continuing to push to be our best this week and look forward to our next opportunity to get back out there this upcoming weekend."

BBCC prepares to host Grays Harbor for a four game set this weekend with games at 11:00 and 2:00 on both Saturday and Sunday.

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