NORTH DELTA, BC - It was an impressive effort by the UBC Thunderbirds (9-15) but a pair of rallies from the no. 10 ranked SFU Clan (15-6) saw the T-Birds lower mainland rivals take both NAIA games in Friday's doubleheader by scores of 4-3 and 9-7 at North Delta Park.
The opening tilt went right down to the wire as the Clan earned a walk-off win when Stefani Durrant doubled home a pair of runs with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh for the one run victory.
UBC took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth when
Brittany Meyer drove in a run, however, SFU responded with a pair in the bottom of the frame to re-take the lead.
Lindsay McElroy pulled the T-Birds even in the top of the sixth with a double that scored
Alyssa Derksen. McElroy then scored on a
Courtney O'Connor double to give the T-Birds a 3-2 lead.
Nicole Day, who went 6 and 1/3 innings for the T-Birds in the loss, couldn't hold off the Clan rally in the seventh but was solid in game one scattering nine hits and six walks.
In the second half of the doubleheader, it was the Clan who took the early with a solo home run from Kelsey Haberl in the bottom of the first.
UBC responded in a big way scoring all seven of their runs in the top of third courtesy of five hits and three SFU errors.
The T-Birds had one RBI each from O'Connor, Hodge, Meyer, Derksen, and
Lisa Fadden in the inning as they chased SFU starter Myriam Poirier. Poirier didn't get much help from her teammates, however, as all seven runs were unearned.
Cara Lukawesky took over on the mound for SFU and shut down the T-Birds the rest of the way allowing just one hit while inducing nine ground outs in 14 batters faced.
SFU slowly chipped away at the 7-1 deficit, scoring a pair in the third and a single in the fourth, before finally re-taking the lead with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. They added an insurance run in the sixth for the fifteenth win of the season.
Kelsey Andison took the loss, going 4 and 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and eight runs (five earned) with a pair of strikeouts.
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