Big Bend falls to Mount Hood in NWAC regionals

MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Vikings were faced with every young baseball player’s dream — a game tied in the bottom of the ninth inning in a win-or-go-home situation.

With Mookie Redmond facing two strikes, he took a step and swung; missing the ball, and sending the game to extra innings where the Vikings would eventually fall to Mount Hood 10-9 in the final game of the Northwest Athletic Conference regional tournament.

“It just didn’t work out,” Big Bend head coach Chase Tunstall said. “That’s the game of baseball.”

The Vikings began their series Friday against Mount Hood, who won its play-in game against Grays Harbor earlier that day. The Saints took the first game after a four-run affair in the top of the sixth inning gave them the lead for good, which they would hold onto to win 7-6. Tunstall rallied his players on Saturday, reveling in the win-or-go-home moment.

“I told them, ‘We’ve been in this situation before,’” Tunstall said. “Ultimately, we weren’t out of it at all. That first one stung, losing late in the game, but we were still in a very good position to take care of business.”

After going down 3-0 in the bottom of the third inning, the Vikings rallied to tie the game on a Jett Nelson 2 RBI single. Redmond’s home run in the fifth gave the Vikings a 5-3 lead, and began a batting spree for Big Bend.

The seventh and eighth inning saw a total of 13 runs scored for the Vikings, including a grand slam by Nelson to put Big Bend up 19-7. The game was called in the bottom of the eighth, with the rubber match deciding who would advance to the NWAC tournament.

“After the first one there was a lot of confidence,” Tunstall said. “Hitting was not an issue, I mean we hit the ball all weekend. It was a battle of two teams, and our feeling going into that [third] game was very confident in our ability and what we’ve done.”

The deciding game saw a back-and-forth affair between the Saints and Vikings. Mount Hood took the lead in the top of the second, with Big Bend responding to take a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the same inning. The Saints tied and retook the lead in the top of the fifth, only for the Vikings to tie in the bottom of the fifth and retake the lead in the sixth inning.

“I think [our team’s resiliency] just goes towards the brotherhood that we’ve built,” Tunstall said. “We’ve been with each other almost every day for eight or nine months, so it was never a question of whether or not we would be resilient. That was what we lived by, just being relentless.”

Entering the seventh inning, Big Bend held a 8-6 advantage over Mount Hood. The Saint’s Trevor Saire hit an RBI triple before scoring himself on a passed ball to tie the game. Big Bend’s Brandham Ponce stopped the bleeding with a home run in the bottom of the seventh for a 9-8 lead, but Travis Wiese answered with a game-tying home run in the ninth.

“You’re always confident in your guys,” Tunstall said. “It was never a feeling of not being able to come back and win. The whole time you’re feeling like you can win it, and that’s what we felt in the dugout.”

Mount Hood took the lead on a balk in the top of the tenth, and the Vikings were unable to answer. Big Bend was eliminated in regionals, their first hosting of a regional tournament in two decades. Despite the ending, Tunstall was prod of what his team had accomplished throughout the season.

“For it being my first year I couldn’t ask for a better group to start with,” Tunstall said. “The guys were thrown into a tough situation, but these guys have believed in each other since the beginning. I don’t think I enjoy this year as much without these kids and without the work that my assistants did and all the people behind the scenes. I can’t thank them enough for making this season what it was.”

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.