MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Community College Vikings got the conference season off to a slow start Wednesday, losing two games to the Blue Mountain Timberwolves at Viking Field, according to an announcement from BBCC.

BBCC handed the ball to sophomore pitcher Hayden Schooler in Game 1, the announcement said. After recording the first two outs of the game, Blue Mountain managed to string back-to-back hits together including a two-run homer to give BMCC an early 2-0 lead. After a bumpy first inning, Schooler settled in, tossing seven innings of three-run ball and allowing two earned runs while punching out nine and not walking a batter. With Schooler keeping the Timberwolves in check, the BBCC offense went to work. Entering the seventh inning down 3-1, BBCC erupted for a five-run inning courtesy of a bases-loaded double by Ben Schnurman that plated all three Viking base runners. Now up 6-3, BBCC handed the ball to freshman right-hander Dylan Schaefer. Schaefer gave up two in the eighth and a single run in the ninth, resulting in a tie-ball game. After a scoreless 10th, the Timberwolves managed to score six runs off of Nolan Soderstrom in the 11th while BBCC was only able to scratch one across in the bottom half, resulting in a final score of 9-7.

Garin Gurlter took the mound for Game 2 and continued to throw the ball well. After surrendering four runs over the first two innings, Gurtler buckled down tossing up three consecutive zeros and giving up a single run in the sixth to wrap up his outing with three earned runs and six strikeouts. After six complete innings, the Vikings found themselves down 5-4 with nine outs to play with. Blue Mountain scored one run in the seventh and one in the eighth to stretch the lead to 7-4 but Big Bend matched the single in the bottom of the eighth and entered the final inning down two runs. The Vikings scratched one across in the ninth and had the tying run at first with two outs but were unable to score resulting in a final score of 7-6. 

"The start of conference play hasn't exactly started how we anticipated or how we wanted it to start,” Head Coach Chase Tunstall wrote in the announcement. “We just have to play better, plain and simple, especially on the defensive side of things as well as the base paths. We continue to beat ourselves and that's something that needs to be turned around quickly. Hopefully, we can find a way to right the ship from top to bottom.

BBCC goes up against Blue Mountain Community College Saturday to finish up the series in a doubleheader with games starting at 1 and 4 p.m.  in Pendleton, Ore.

Box Scores

Game 1

Blue Mountain: 2-2-0-0-0-1-1-1-0 7

Big Bend: 0-2-0-0-2-0-0-1-1 6

Game 2

Blue Mountain: 0-0-0-0-0-1-2-1-0-3 9

Big Bend: 0-0-1-0-0-5-0-0-0-1 7