Big Bend wins West Super Region, headed to the NWAC Baseball Championships for first time since 2002

MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Vikings weren’t even ranked in the May 9 NWAC Baseball Coaches poll, but they kept pushing forward under the radar, clinching the No. 3 spot in the East Region in the last week of the regular season.

First-year manager Jameson Lange thought his Vikings (31-18) would be one of the scariest teams in the West Super Region tournament this past weekend at Minnitti Field at Tacoma Community College.

Big Bend blew through the West Super Region like a hot knife through butter, winning three games, including two over West No. 2 seed Tacoma (32-12), to return to the NWAC Baseball Championships for the first time since 2002. Pete Doumit laid the foundation and Jameson, his longtime assistant now in the skipper’s seat, has the Runnin’ Vikes back in the Elite Eight for the first time in 15 years.

“This means a lot. I put everything I had into it 12 years ago as a player. Then being a part of the coaching staff the last five years under Pete Doumit building the program, not just the athletic part of it, but the character and work ethic,” Jameson said. “Pete Doumit set the foundation and all I’ve had to do was put the final touches on it. We’ve been talking about Longview every single day since Since Sept. 21 when they arrived on campus. The kids worked hard and listened, and expected to be in this situation. ”

The West Super Region winners will now advance on to the NWAC Baseball Championships on Thursday where they will play Edmonds at 12:35 p.m. in Longview. The Tritons (38-7) are the No. 1 seed out of the North and finished the final coaches poll at No. 3. But, they go into the tournament having won just six out of their last 10 games.

“We split with Edmonds early in the season,” Jameson said. “They have a great pitching staff. Offensively, they spray the ball very well and do the fundamental side of baseball very, very well.”

But where the Vikings are offensively at this point in the season should make things interesting. Lange changed his order for the Super Region and the success was off the charts. They scored eight runs on 11 hits in an 8-6 victory over Tacoma the second time around.

Big Bend scored five runs on seven hits in a 5-2 victory over Tacoma on Friday and 10 runs with 11 hits in a 10-4 victory over Chemeketa in the opener.

They’ll take that same approach against Edmonds in the NWAC opener.

“It’s another new season where everybody is 0-0 and I feel like we can beat anybody. It’s going to come down to guts and grit, and the ability to play all nine innings,” Jameson said. “We saw (Wyatt) Stanley. We saw (Will) Smith. The have a lefty they that’s pretty good. We’ll be ready with whoever they go with.”

Stanley, Smith and reliever Lucas Ford were first-team, all-North selections. The Vikings will counter with their all-East Region lineup.

Third baseman Cody Banks (.313) earned a gold glove and was named to the first team. Shortstop Kyle Tolf (.311), first baseman Trevor Luckey (.343) and pitcher Tyson Yamane were selected to the second team.

At one point in the April NWAC Coaches Poll, three of the eight teams were from the East Region. It was work just getting out of the region, but it’s paid off for the Vikings, who reached No. 8 in the coaches poll in April.

“The Columbia Basin and Walla Walla’s records didn’t show how good of teams they really were. I think if you throw a No. 4 or No. 5 seed out of the East will be able to compete in any given Super Region,” Lange said. “There’s two guys on Wenatchee’s team leading the NWAC in home runs and they didn’t even get there.

“So I think we can play with anybody. It’s going to be electric and everything we’ve worked for since September. We’re just going to go and do what we do and see if we can’t come home with a championship.”