Big Bend gets needed sweep Vikings stay alive in playoff race

Dave Heaverlo, pitching coach for the Big Bend Vikings called Saturday's doubleheader with Walla Walla "ironic."

Walla Walla captured game one with four unearned runs in the ninth inning to win 10-8, but the Vikings got a wild pitch with a runner on third to win game two 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth.

"Today was a classic example of you win ugly and you lose ugly," Heaverlo said. "We personified that to the fullest."

Big Bend took leads in both games, but fell behind late in both games due to the Warriors' ability to pick apart the bullpen.

The Vikings bullpen went 1-1 in the series, allowing seven runs, two earned and four strike outs over 4 2/3 innings pitched in the two-game series. Heaverlo said they are working by a "bullpen by committee" strategy that hasn't paid off.

"Our freshman pitchers are fortunately or unfortunately going to have to learn under fire," Heaverlo said. "We don't have a dominant guy in the bullpen."

The split with Walla Walla kept Big Bend in last place with a 4-6 record in the Eastern region and a game out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the East. The Vikings host Treasure Valley (17-8, 8-4) on Wednesday, currently No. 3 in the East, in a must win situation.

"We are lucky that we have Treasure Valley up here to round out the first half," Heaverlo said. "We should be in pretty good shape going into Wednesday's game."

Walla Walla got started early in game one of the doubleheader with a two-run advantage. The Warriors knocked in two more runs in the top of the sixth off a sacrifice fly by Joe Schmidt and a single by Marcus Mann to left field to put Walla Walla up 4-0 after 5 1/2 innings.

Big Bend awoke in the bottom of the sixth inning, putting four runs on three hits on the board. Christian Romple drove in Dale Hall on a fielder's choice, Eric Duke drove in one of his two RBIs with a base hit to right field and two runs scored on a short stop error to tie the game at 4-4 after six innings.

Adam McKee regained the lead for Walla Walla with a single to center field to score Patrick Cummins from second base, but the Vikings answered with four runs in the next two innings, with RBIs coming from Sam Hall, Duke and two RBIs from Romple.

Big Bend brought in sophomore Scott Parrish to close out the top of the ninth and started with Zach Danelson popping out to the catcher in foul territory, hit the next batter Cummins, but got Jake Rogers to ground into a fielder's choice to get the lead runner Cummins out at second base.

McKee, Jake LaForest and Schmidt hit back-to-back-to-back singles to left field to score Cummins with two outs. Mann followed with a grounder to third base for the potential third out, but the throw got by the Viking first baseman to score two runs and put runners at second and third with the game tied at 8-8.

Parrish threw a wild pitch in the next at bat to score the go-ahead run and the throw from the catcher got past Parrish to score Mann from second base. Walla Walla's Gregg Hare, after giving three runs - all credited to T.J. Anderson - in the bottom of the eighth, allowed one hit in the bottom of the ninth inning and struck out one batter to hold onto the 18-8 win for the Warriors.

"He threw well, it is just unfortunate that those base hits fell," Heaverlo said of Parrish's performance.

Game two had similar subplots, just a different outcome.

Walla Walla got the first lead of the ball game, the result of a lead off double by Danelson, who went 4-for-4 in the second game, and scored on a ground out to third base by Cummins.

Big Bend's pitcher, freshman Rick Templeton settled in after the first inning, to pitch 6 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball, before handing the final 1 2/3 innings over to the bullpen with a 2-1 lead.

Walla Walla regained the lead in the top of the eighth after Big Bend's Eric Biagi made a running grab on a grounder up the middle of the diamond, but the throw got away from the first baseman Matt Brown to score Tyson Beggs and Danelson from second and third.

"The errors that occurred, if there is something like a good error, the errors are not for a lack of hustle," Heaverlo said about Biagi's play on the ball in the middle of the infield.

Dale Hall led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, advanced to second on Cedric Steinshouer's single to center field and moved to third on a bases loading walk to Duke.

This time, the Warrior's bullpen stumbled with Tyler Walker throwing a wild pitch, sending Hall towards home, but the relay from catcher to pitcher caught Hall in time. An appeal to the second base umpire overturned the call at home and called Hall safe to tie the game at 3-3.

According to Heaverlo, Walker bobbled the relay throw, allowing Hall to score safely.

"As poorly as we are playing, it is ironic that we get a call to go our way, but hopefully that was the break we needed," Heaverlo added.

Walla Walla brought in Hare to end the ninth before allowing another run and got Camron Iverson to bunt foul on the second strike in the at bat for out No. 2. IN Biagi's at bat, Hare threw a wild pitch to score Joel Evans for the 4-3 come-from-behind victory for the Vikings.

Even with the split in the series, Heaverlo and the rest of the Big Bend coaching staff haven't been happy with the performance the Vikings have showed on the field, especially after giving up leads in both games.

Heaverlo said a team evaluation will take place after the Treasure Valley doubleheader on Wednesday to see how the team will line up.

"After Wednesday, we will be able to see which guys will play for us on a consistent basis," Heaverlo added.