VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds dug their way out of a 5-0 hole against Lewis-Clark State on Saturday, only to have the Warriors take the lead back in the eighth inning and hold on for the 6-5 win at Thunderbird Park.
With two outs and pinch-runner Connor Moore on first, Warriors short stop Josh Ashenbrenner smacked a double into the right-centre field gap. Moore scored the go-ahead run, and reliever Henry Buenrostro shut the T-Birds down the rest of the way to even the weekend series at one game each.
Despite the loss, UBC head coach
Terry McKaig was happy with the effort of his players as they tried to battle back from the early deficit.
"when two good teams get together it brings out the best in everyone," McKaig said. "This is their last big series before they go to the NAIA World Series so they are taking it very seriously, and we are starting our march towards the playoffs too so there's no better team for us to play than these guys to see where we are at and give ourselves the confidence that we can play with anybody."
After throwing a no-hitter in his last outing, T-Birds starter
Mark Hardy struggled against the top-ranked Warriors. After giving up a run in the first inning, he managed to strand two runners in each of the next two innings to keep his side in the game, but the visitors got to him in the fourth. Ashenbrenner singled home the first run of the inning, and Brian Burke's three-run homer to left field made it 5-0 for the Warriors.
The T-Birds struck back immediately with two runs in the bottom of the fourth on a
Nick Senior sac fly and a
Sammie Starr single. They scratched out another run in the fifth on a groundout, and two more groundouts in the sixth tied the game up.
"You know when you get down 5-0 it's going to be a tough climb but I was pretty happy with the way we swung the bats," McKaig said. "We battled back and that showed a lot, so there is something to be said for the second half of that game."
Starr was 2-for-4 on the day with two RBIs.
Andrew Firth was 3-for-4. Both Burke and Trent Bridges had three hits for the Warriors.
Buenrostro got the win with four scoreless innings of relief work. He allowed just one hit and one walk.
Taylor King took the loss for UBC, giving up one run and two hits over two innings.
UBC falls to 31-7 on the year, while the Warriors are 32-3. The rubber match of their three-game series begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Thunderbird Park.
