Vikes Drop Conference Opener

Entering conference play, the Vikes hosted a top Eastern Region opponent in Columbia Basin College on Wednesday March 28th looking to get off to a hot start.

After a tough weekend prior, the Vikes leaned on sophomore pitcher Hayden Schooler to begin their 28 game conference schedule. Coming off of two rough starts, Schooler looked like his regular self tossing 6 innings of 2 run ball while punching out 8 and walking 1. With Schooler holding the high powered CBC offense in check, it was up to the BBCC hitters to take care of business. The Vikes continuously put themselves in a position to score, but the offensive threats were neutralized due to multiple base running mistakes. Ryley Doig continued to be the Vikes hottest hitter collecting another two hits in game one but the mistakes came back to bite the Vikes as they dropped game one by a score of 2-1.

Game two began with freshman pitcher Garin Gurlter getting the nod. Gurtler tossed a scoreless first before the defense began to fall apart. The defensive miscues defined game two as BBCC could not seem to make the routine play resulting in copious amounts of unearned runs for the Hawks. Gurtler's outing was cut short to just three innings with Jesse Brown, Jacob Kanaly and Ashton Meyer taking care of the remaining outs. Not only was the defense making costly mistakes, but the Viking offense was only able to collect 1 hit with Ben Schnurman collecting a two out RBI single as the Vikes dropped game two by a score of 17-2. Head Coach Chase Tunstall had this to say regarding the pair of tough losses.

"Game one was in striking distance from beginning to end. We had many opportunities to scratch runs across but were unable to execute when we needed to. We put ourselves in a spot to win, but when it came down to it, we made more mistakes than they did. On the other hand game two got out of hand in a hurry. We've told our guys from the beginning that having to get extra outs makes it tough to win in this league. At the end of the day, one hit and four errors is not going win many, if any games throughout the course of the year."

BBCC has a quick turnaround as the travel to Pasco, WA on Saturday March 30th to finish off the four game set looking to split the series.

As always, keep up with the Vikings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as through the NWACSports Network's livestream video platform, where available.