Vikings split doubleheader with Wenatchee Valley

MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Community College Vikings (8-12) split their home doubleheader against Wenatchee Valley in the first game of conference play for the season. The Vikings fell 3-8 in the first game but came back to win 7-5 in the second. 

“It was nice to see the response in game two,” said Vikings Head Coach Chase Tunstall. “Karter Wilson came out and gave us his best outing of the year so far.”  

In the first game, the Vikings got on the board in the first inning, scoring off a single from Isaiah Aliksa, sending Ricardo Leon Guerrero II and Kevin Garcia home. Big Bend increased their lead in the second quarter when Leon Guerrero hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Rylan Osjornsen to lead 3-0 at the top of the third. 

Wenatchee Valley chipped away at the Vikings’ lead in the third and fourth inning, scoring two runs to put the score at 3-2. The Vikings maintained their lead until the top of the eighth when Wenatchee scored six runs to put the game at 3-8. BBCC was unable to respond in the final two at-bats and Wenatchee Valley claimed victory. 

Chase Fleming pitched seven innings for the Vikings, throwing seven strikeouts, followed by Cole McKinnon and Dayton Shimatsu, who threw one strikeout. 

“We started off hot the first couple innings, had a phenomenal outing from Chase Fleming; we had the lead in the top of the eighth and ran into some good hitting by Wenatchee,” said Tunstall. “We kind of gave it away toward the end there and they beat us.” 

BBCC was slower to start in the second game as Wenatchee Valley was first on the board with a run in the second inning. The Vikings began to gain offensive momentum in the fourth inning as Alex Hirai walked with bases loaded, scoring Ryley Doig and Jaime Ruelas grounded out to score Isaiah Aliksa to gain a 2-1 lead.  

Wenatchee Valley evened the score in the top of the sixth, but the Vikings regained the lead with a walk from Kevin Garcia that scored Kaiden Weakley. Wenatchee gained the lead in the top of the eighth 4-3, but in the bottom of the eighth Big Bend had their best scoring inning with runs from Jaime Ruelas, Joseph Valenzuela, Garcia and Doig. 

One more run was scored in the top of the ninth as Wenatchee’s Malikhi Emery-Henderson homered, but the Vikings put the game away for a 7-5 victory. 

Karter Wilson pitched five innings for the Vikings with four strike outs followed by Nelson Ahumada who pitched two innings, Alex Hirai who pitched one inning with two strike outs and Leon Guerrero who pitched one inning with two strike outs. 

The coach said game two’s victory game from timely hitting from the Vikings and having players like Leon Guerrero, who stepped up to close the door at the end of the day. 

“Good things in game two to build off of game one and hopefully we’ll keep it rolling into game three and four on Saturday,” he said. 

A key takeaway from this game as the Vikings enter conference play is the knowledge that anyone can beat any other team any given day, said Tunstall. With that the key to victory all comes down to which team can show up and play all nine innings. 

This lesson was learned from game one Wednesday afternoon as they came in hot and then allowed the opposition to catch up and overtake them late in the game, said the coach.  

This season he said that the Vikings have been focused on setting goals for the present.  

“Obviously everybody shoots for the same thing; they shoot for the (Northwest Athletic Conference) championship, the east title and everything,” said Tunstall. “I think sometimes it’s more important to set short term goals to reach that long term goal and I think our biggest goal moving forward is just trying to go 1-0 in the first game and taking it one game at a time.” 

This season, the Vikings roster is made up of the usual 50/50 split of freshmen and sophomores with 16 returning sophomores. The coach said everyone on the team has been stepping up when necessary this season and expects that to continue as the season progresses. 

“I think this team has the capability of being really good, but we just have to put it all together and continue to move forward and play the pitch,” said Tunstall.  

The Vikings head on the road to face Wenatchee Valley again in another doubleheader Saturday, with the first game starting at 1 p.m. 

BOX SCORE 

GAME ONE 

WVCC: 0-0-1-1-0-0-0-6-0: 8 

BBCC: 2-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0: 3 

GAME TWO 

WVCC: 0-1-0-0-0-1-0-2-1: 5 

BBCC: 0-0-0-2-0-1-0-4-x: 7

    BBCC’s Joseph Valenzuela is congratulated by his teammates after making it to home plate for a score during Wednesday’s matchup against Wenatchee Valley.
  

    Kaiden Weakley from Big Bend heads for home plate against Wenatchee Valley.
  

    Vikings freshman Jaime Ruelas throws toward first base to get a Wenatchee Valley player out during game two Wednesday.
  

    Ryley Doig from BBCC steps up to bat during Wednesday’s doubleheader against Wenatchee Valley.
  

    Alex Hirai from Big Bend prepares to swing at a pitch during game two against Wenatchee Valley.