BBCC softball ready to excel

MOSES LAKE - The Big Bend softball team is growing restless.

Weather has wrecked six games so far and the team's pent up aggression is starting to boil over.

"Oh, they got to play somebody or they're going to kill one another," head coach Ray Moffitt said. "I mean, they can't even have a card game. It's amazing, I have a real competitive bunch here and they really are raring to go."

Last year, Moffitt's first season as head coach, the Vikings stumbled to a 10-34 overall record and finished the season last in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) East region.

The last minute hiring of Moffitt didn't allow for much offseason preparation. Now with a full season at Big Bend under his belt, Moffitt was able to do what he does best.

Recruit.

"This will be one of the best teams I've been able to put together," he said. "I've lost everybody except four sophomores and the freshmen coming in were actually kids I had been recruiting over the last two or three years."

Moffitt, the former recruiting coordinator and pitching coach at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Ore., was able to nab every player he had targeted except two.

The quartet of freshmen Californians Cheyenne O'dell, Erica Chandler, Tiffany King Phillips and Alexis Spence will look to do damage in the Big Bend lineup.

"Eric Chandler was a star in high school in San Luis Obispo," Moffitt said. "I look for big things out of Erica. During fall ball she was a real star. I think our first game she had 10 put outs at shortstop."

The four players from the Sunshine State have previous experience together playing for the California Velocity and are anchored by Spence, a pitcher and first baseman.

"One of my pitchers, Alexis Spence, is a 5'11" fireball, I guess you could say, but she has good movement and speed," Moffitt said. "She has extensive summer ball experience."

Moffitt believes this year's Viking team will be one of the deepest with 13 players who could potentially start.

Big Bend will also look to frustrate opposing teams on the base paths.

"I've got a lot of speed," Moffitt said. "More speed than I've had before. I have nine kids that can run under three seconds to first base and there aren't too many teams around that can make that claim."

Big Bend is on the road the first couple weeks of the season before its home opener against Skagit Valley on March 24. The Vikings will look to build momentum with an extended nine-game home stand that stretches into April.

"This is a real scheduling phenomenon," Moffitt said. "If we're smart we'll make a lot of hay while we're at home because at the end of the season we're going to be on the road and I think most coaches will tell you it's not how you do in the first five games, it's how you do in the last five games and if you're on the road it's a little tougher usually."