VICTORIA, Texas - The fifth-seeded UBC Thunderbirds inaugural varsity season came to end on Friday at the A.I.I Conference Softball Championship with a 6-1 loss to no. 2 seeded SFU Clan at Burdge Field in Victoria, Texas.
BOX SCOREUBC dropped their tournament opener 10-3 to Ohio Dominican on Thursday and were eliminated from the post season by their Lower Mainland rivals following their second loss in the double elimination bracket. The 'Birds finish with a 9-17 overall record in the school's first varsity softball campaign.
Trailing 6-0 in the top of the sixth, the visiting T-Birds put together their best offensive string of the weekend.
With one out,
Courtney O'Connor got aboard and was advanced to second by a
Lisa Fadden single. After picking up their second out of the inning,
Brittany Meyer laced a single down the right field line which cashed in O'Connor from second.
The throw at home got past the SFU catcher which opened the door for Fadden to try and score from first but she was tagged out in an extremely close play at the plate to end the inning.
UBC couldn't muster anything in the seventh and with the win, the Clan advance to face LSU-Alexandria in an elimination tilt later tonight.
Nicole Day, UBC's no. 1 pticher, was ruled out of this week's competition with a rib injury, forcing the pitching duties on a pair of first-years.
Freshman hurler
Allison Hipgrave was sharp over the opening two innings, striking out three of the first seven batters faced.
The T-Birds tallied four hits over the first three innings but stranded five runners and the Clan made them pay by getting got on the board in the third.
A four-pitch walk to open the inning was followed by a fielding error from Hipgrave to put SFU runners on first and second. Jessie Harris opened the scoring with a single on the Clan's next at-bat. SFU added a pair of runs off of fielder's choices to lead 3-0 after three.
Hipgrave's day ended in the fourth when SFU put two aboard, one walked and one fielding error, with one out. UBC's
Kelsey Andison came in to relieve her fellow freshman.
The Clan loaded the bases with an infield single and then added a run off a walk. Andison struck out SFU's next batter but with two outs, Kelsey Haberl, blooped a single to shallow centre which cashed in a pair of runners.
Hipgrave gave up five runs (two earned) on four hits with four strikeouts while Andison was charged with one unearned run on three hits with four strikeouts of her own.
Fadden led the UBC offence with two singles, bringing her two-game total to five. The only other T-Bird to reach base twice was
Alyssa Derksen. The T-Birds' centre fielder had a double in the first inning and then got aboard in the seventh as her speed forced an error from the SFU infield.
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