Big Bend prepared to host first regional in two decades

MOSES LAKE — After a program-best of 19 wins in the conference this season, Big Bend Community College earned a No. 2 seed in the Northwest Athletic Conference Super Regional — its highest seeding in two decades.

Led by first-year head coach and Moses Lake native Chase Tunstall, the Vikings are eager to put on a good show for the hometown crowd.

“I played here and was a bat boy here, so I’ve been involved with [Big Bend] for quite a few years,” Tunstall said. “My dad was an assistant coach here and when I was a bat boy, I said I wanted to be a player, and when I was a player I was like ‘It’d be pretty cool to be a college coach someday.’”

The Vikings made a run to the NWAC tournament in 2018, where they won four games in the Super Regional before being eliminated in the NWAC tournament by Lane Community College. Big Bend was a No. 3 seed out of the East that season and was the lowest-seeded team to make the NWAC tournament.

“This is the first time in 20 years that we’ve been the first or second seed out of this division,” Tunstall said. “A little bit of an easier route to get to the NWAC {tournament] as far as only having to win two games.”

After a slow start in the preseason, Tunstall and his players were faced with a decision; they were to either step up in the face of adversity or fall under the pressure. With the troops rallied and a goal in mind, the Vikings went 19-9 in conference play to lock up the No. 2 seed in the East region.

“We kind of turned the table there,” Tunstall said, “It took a lot of hard work. I would say the East Region is probably the toughest region in the NWAC … it’s a pretty tough conference, and our guys bought into that and realized what it’s going to take on a daily basis to get [to the tournament].”

From the end of April to mid-May the Vikings won 11 of 12 games, which pushed them over the edge for the No. 2 seed in the East Region. The deciding game was a 7-1 win over Yakima Valley on May 11.

“We just gotta keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Tunstall said when asked how to keep up that success. “Don’t try to change a whole lot. The biggest thing I've been telling the guys is ‘There’s a lot more to be nervous in life about than playing a game, than playing baseball.”

Thanks to key play by All-Americans Brandham Ponce and Austin Bunn along with pitcher Dylan Gardner - who all have committed to play Division and Bunn was voted as the NWAC player of the year last season - the Vikings were able to overcome some lost players over the course of the season.

“It’s pretty much just a collective effort,” Tunstall said. “We’ve lost a few players throughout the year whether it’s discipline, [being] homesick, injuries and just everything like that. We’re down to about 28 players right now, and it’s been that way for about four weeks.

Our guys have really had to band together, so it’s taken everyone. Everyone knows their role by now, and they’ve bought into it.”

With a path to the NWAC tournament that runs through Big Bend, Tunstall will prepare the Vikings to play the winner of Mt. Hood vs. Grays Harbor. The play-in between the Saints and Chokers will be at noon on Friday, with the winner taking on Big Bend in the first game of a three-game series at 3 p.m. that same day.

“You just scout both of them pretty much,” Tunstall said when asked about the quick turnaround between games. “You look at what they both have done. Outside of that, at this time of the year - especially in the NWAC - it doesn't really matter what you did before because any given day crazy stuff happens.”