VANCOUVER - A six-run first inning turned out to be all Lewis-Clark State needed on Sunday to win the game 8-4 and the series 2-1 against the UBC Thunderbirds.
After throwing a complete game shutout in his last outing,
Brandon Kaye couldn't escape the first inning on Sunday against the Warriors. Seven of the first eight Warriors hitters reached base, and
David Otterman replaced Kaye to record the final two outs of the frame. All six runs were charged to Kaye, who was hit with the loss on Sunday.
"We had a very poor start and you can't do that against teams like this," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. "It was too big of a hole today and we had no chance really."
Sammie Starr and
Alex White both had RBI doubles in the sixth inning to get UBC on the board, and they tacked on two more in the eighth, but they couldn't muster anything against Warriors reliever Henry Buenrostro, who shut down the T-Birds' comeback effort for a second straight game. He had three strikeouts and allowed just one hit over the final inning and a third.
"You can't judge your team when you are behind five or six nothing," McKaig said, talking about his team's offensive efforts after getting behind early in their past two games. "It changes the whole game and you can't do anything offensively because you're not bunting or stealing. We just need to find a way for our starting pitchers to come out and compete a little bit better early in the game."
Colby Hawk got the win, as he allowed two runs on five hits through 5.1 innings. Otterman and
Jordan Herbison were solid in relief for the T-Birds, combining for seven innings of one-run pitching.
Starr was UBC's top hitter, going 3-for-5 with an RBI. Gino Casini led the warriors with two RBIs and a 2-for-3 day at the plate, including a solo home run in the seventh inning.
After winning two of three games this weekend against the fourth-ranked T-Birds, the Warriors are looking strong as the NAIA's top-ranked team, with a 33-3 record on the year. UBC falls to 31-8, and will look to regroup next weekend against the Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls.
"We talked about putting a lot of pressure on this game because of how big it was," said McKaig. "We said this game would define where we are at so for it to go the way it did is not a good sign. Back to the drawing board during the week and we will build back up for Oregon Tech"
The 'Birds and Owls will clash at Thunderbird Park on April 24 and 25, with doubleheaders starting at 12 p.m. and 11 a.m. respectively. The Warriors will be back in action on Monday when they start a three-game series on the road against Corban College.
