Big Bend baseball in must-win situation after dropping NWAC East doubleheader to Spokane
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin Herald Spokane runner Jermaine Ducham slides around the tag of Big Bend catcher Daulton Kvenvold to score during the second game of Saturdays NWAC East doubleheader. Spokane swept Big Bend.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldBig Bend's Daulton Kvenvold slides in to score the Vikings only run in the NWAC East opener with Spokane on Saturday.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldBig Bend first baseman Trevor Luckey flips the ball back to pitcher Cade Tunstall for the out during the second game of Saturday's NWAC East doubleheader with Spokane.
MOSES LAKE — In the NWAC East, there’s No. 2 Yakima Valley (36-6, 18-2 NWAC East) and there’s No. 6 Spokane (29-9, 16-4) and then there’s rest.
If No. 8 Big Bend can regain a little swag after being slapped around by two of the best teams in the Northwest Athletic Conference, the Vikings (22-16, 10-11) still control their own destiny in terms of making the NWAC baseball championship with four conference doubleheaders remaining.
“At this point, we can’t look at (anybody else’s) record. The better we can be at staying away from the roller coaster effect, the better we’re going to be,” Big Bend manger Jameson Lange said. “We need to take care of business. We can’t finish with a .500 record. We have to be on top and we have to play it game-by-game to get there.”
Big Bend dropped its second doubleheader at home in the last seven days, losing 5-1 to Spokane in the first game and 13-5 in the second. Now it doesn’t help that Big Bend played both the No. 2 and No. 6-ranked teams in the NWAC coaches poll in a seven-game span.
But the Vikings are now in a three-way tied for third with four double-headers against teams they swept in the first half of the season.
“I’m confident we’ll get back to where we were at, but the last eight games will dictate,” Lange said.
Big Bend is in Pasco on Wednesday to face Columbia Basin (21-17, 10-11), which moved into the tie for third by sweeping Wenatchee Valley. The Vikes swept Columbia Basin on April 2 at home. Another sweep on the road will go a long ways toward getting where they want to be.
The Vikings host Treasure Valley on Saturday and Wenatchee Valley on May 9, before wrapping up the regular season at Blue Mountain in Pendleton, Ore.
The good news is that they are 7-1 against the teams in the remaining schedule. The bad news is that they are 5-5 in their last 10 games.
As for the Spokane doubleheader, Daulton Kvenvold (2-for-3) and Ben Albrecht (2-4) had a couple of hits in the first game. Nate English (2-5) and Kyle Tolf (2-4) had multiple hits in the second.