Vikings baseball suffers two losses in Pasco

PASCO - Travelling to play a formidable host is always a touch-and-go proposition for any team.

This weekend, the Big Bend Vikings baseball team took on Columbia Basin College in an Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) doubleheader and in the end the visiting Vikings saw results on both ends of the spectrum.

In game one, CBC, one of the top teams in the NWAACC East rallied for a dramatic 7-6 win and carried that momentum over to roll to an anticlimactic 9-0 victory to sweep the twinbill.

"In the first game, Randy Button threw a great game for us but a couple of errors kept CBC close," Big Bend head coach Don Lindgren said."

The Vikings (12-16, 3-9) were up 6-4 going into the bottom of the ninth inning before the host Hawks (19-9, 9-3) were given a hand by the baseball gods.

A walk to a batter who had gotten a second life after a dropped pop up started the CBC rally.

"We have to start having our guys concentrate the entire," Lindgren said.

Big Bend's offense knocked out 11 hits, led by the two-hit effort of Ricco Moreno, Billy Karwacki, and Matt Herbert.

In the nightcap, the Big Bend offense struggled to get going and the effects from the opening game's result were obvious as both teams went in completely different direction.

CBC's offense got going, the pitching was more dominant and the Big Bend's bats were silent as Hawks rolled to a 9-0 win.

Taylor Nicholson recorded a one-hit pitching effort to lead the Hawks and curtail and possibility of the Vikings trying to earn a split of the series.

The Vikings' Bryce Todd got the only hit, via a double.

Currently, Big Bend lie in sixth place in the East Division, six games out of a fourth and final NWAACC Conference Tournament playoff spot.